Where The Devastation Reigns
by EmiTheInsane
Summary: "Neither Kaiba or I know how many times we threw up while cutting that d*mn corpse open! We smeared ourselves in blood and gore in order to survive, not because we intend to make a new perfume out of the 'delicious' smell!"-Jonouchi Katsuya. Future chapter.
1. Chapter 1

_**Hello everyone, this is Emi!**_

_**Finally, I've decided to upload the first chapter of the project I've been writing on for about eight months. Many many ideas came to my mind as I tried to give this plot some order until I was somewhat satisfyed, but the whole thing is by far not finished (on blue-print). I know in which direction I'm going to lead this, so I think uploading is acceptable, don't worryXD**_

_**Have fun!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-gi-oh! I'm not gaining any profits by posting this! I just own the plot.**_

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**Chapter 1: School, And Other Trivial Matters**

Ever since Atem was gone, everything had taken its normal course, which hadn't been evident for a long time. School had once again become the unpleasant obligation that was known too well...and this time, without some sick evil people trying to gain the power or the world by using a children's card game. Seriously, this was slowly getting weird...

Yugi and his friends still were trying to get used to the fact that there was no challenge, no target, or action anymore. At least not like before.

The last senior year caused an uncomfortable feeling to form inside their stomachs as they thought about walking on different paths as soon as the chapter called 'Domino High-School' would end for good. The human being was always, and still is afraid of things it doesn't know, and such an important step into the future was effectively a reason to get some weak knees from time to time. The gang would not be able to pass the days with each other anymore. They would have to face new people, with other interests, characters and ideologies.

Kaiba Seto knew how his rather predictable daily routine would look like after that horrible waste of time was finally over. No endless nights that were used to catch up on the work he missed during the time he wasn't available. Instead of running back and forth between school and Kaiba Corp to not miss the meetings that were to be attended, there would be enough time to get ready to make deciding and important moves, and to get a nap here and there so that another total brain-meltdown could be avoided. The last time it happened, the CEO slept during 25 hours straight, ate something in between, and continued to rest subsequently.

One of the main reasons Seto despised the time he had to spend in that building full of incopetent fools who dared to call themselves 'teachers', was Mokuba. The boy barely saw his older brother through the week, which made him feel sad and even more lonely since he almost had no friends.

Every child at school knew whose brother Mokuba was, so it was no brain killer to notice the respect they gave him was not really because they respected and liked him for his personality. More his big brother's master card...Sometimes the little Kaiba could swear to see the slimy traces those fools left, and made himself a notice to not slip on them and to fall right on his nose.

Even after going through quite a lot of adventures with Yugi and his friends, Seto didn't see the need to treat them better. The respect was present, indeed, but to do as that shrimp asked him to, and actually 'hang out' with them, would never happen in the longest eternity. Even if there would be the will; In what free time? All Seto did was to run from place to place, halfway work himself into coma, try to be present in Mokuba's lonely life, and to not forget to eat and drink. He was glad his personal assistant and best friend, Rachel, took care of the boy during the long and hard meeting marathons.

Today's entertainment program, directed by no one else than Seto and Jou, happened during P.E, the game was called 'Dodge Ball'...It is surely imaginable how it ended.

All in all it was an average stressful day, full of tests, and ass faced teachers that obviously were trying to compensate something by acting like total jerks. Hm, probably the lack of a real love life...

Mokuba Kaiba was used to spend all of his free time in Seto's large office. All he needed to occupy himself was available, as well as the huge plasma TV. Seto's attention was always the boy's first choice though.

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"Seto, do you want to watch the news?"

"Hn? Yes put the channel in. You can watch whatever you want afterwards."

"Cool!"

_"...happened in north Domino was gruesome, and tragic. The police recently confirmed the rumors about the victims being partly eaten. We recommend to close your doors, windows, and most importantly to lock them. Also; be careful if You absolutely need to get out during the night..."_

"Good thing we live in south Domino, right, Seto?"

"It doesn't matter, Mokuba. From tomorrow on, Isono will not quit your side as long as you aren't with me."

Mokuba knew it was no use to fight against what Seto said. particularly with such a determining tone in his voice. All he could do was to watch his big brother getting his android cell phone out of his pocket, and speed dial the number of his most trusted bodyguard, Isono.

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**_It would be cool if those who review would also tell me who, or what they think is coming towards them, let's see if some of you guys had the correct premonition! You'll get the answer by reading the second chapter, which will probably appear in about two weeks! I'll try to get it up sooner though, it depends on my working shedule, and what I've planned to do in my free time._**

**_Thank you for the interest in this, _**

**_greets, Emi;D_**


	2. Chapter 2 Weird Happenings

_**Hey there! Thank you very much for the reviews on the first chapter! I'm very happy that you guys liked it!**_

_**I'm uploading this a bit earlier for Sedra-The Dark Side, so all thanks for that should go to her ;) I overworked myself and should rest my right wrist a bit, so I have some time left to update this.**_

_**Well, let's go! From here on our motto is; Gore, gore and more gore! lol Remember younger readers, this is rated M!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-gi-oh! I'm not gaining any profits by posting this! I just own the plot.**_

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**Chapter 2: Weird Happenings**

As Sugoroku Muto read the newspaper the next morning, a weird feeling formed inside his stomach. Yugi and his friends were always somehow involved with subtile individuals who wanted to either destroy or to rule the world...He just hoped the boy and his friends would be able to lead a normal life after the spirit of the millenium puzzle was now gone.

They all heard, and got warned about the cruelties that happened lately. It didn't hold them back to shake it off and to claim that it would never happen to them anyway. The police would surely capture this crazy murderer, would they? They would go on with their lives and do as if nothing happened, since it didn't concern them.

"Oi, Kaiba! I got a black eye because of you!"

Seto, who was getting some books from the insides of his locker smirked at the words thrown at him, and turned to look at the angry Jou. He had his little nerd herd behind him, as usual.

"I don't know what you mean."

"Sure you know! Yesterday? Dodge ball?!"

"Oooh, you're talking about that? I apologize, I should have known you wouldn't be able to catch anything with your dirty paws, mutt."

"Why you...!"

Jou was lucky to have Honda and Otogi holding him back each time he wanted to jump on him. It wasn't a rare sight of them, and as much he loved to get on the blondes nerves, it still started to bore Seto. It was always the same reaction. It would be nice if that Mazaki cheerleader would scream at him again. She was quite entertaining when she threw a small tantrum because of his actions, and blamed him for being a rude jerk. It was like a movie that kept repeating itself forever though.

As usual, Seto sat down at his place and took out the book he started reading recently. If he wasn't reading, he was continuing his work for the company. How else should he occupy himself while school? The teachers weren't even able to catch up with his knowledge, let alone teach him something. Heck, if he wanted to, he could do their job a thousand times better!

Mr. Tsuruoka was one of them. Even though he loved tormenting the students, he knew what was best for himself and kept his mouth shut when it came to the calm, but also short tempered CEO.

_'At least I don't need to worry about Mokuba.'_

"We're going to continue where we stopped yesterday. Question 14, but before we go on, could someone resume..."

Seto had chosen the seat at the window at the beginning of the school year – for a good reason. Sometimes his blue eyes needed some rest from being constantly fixed at his computer, or at books, or anything, really...The last thing he wanted was to end up wearing glasses, which he probably couldn't even avoid in the future.

The lesson went on and on, and it didn't take long for Mr. Tsuruoka to find a reason to pick on his next victim. He really enjoyed the fact that the students had no right to disrespect him without having to fear severe consequences. This side occupation was discovered by him during the beginning of his career as a teacher. He had power over these loud mouthed kids, and he sure as hell enjoyed pestering them.

"Uhm, Mr. Tsuruoka, could I go to the restroom?"

"Can't it wait until the next break?"

"N...No, I-"

"Then go! We don't want you to wet your pants, hm?"

As the poor guy stood up and made his way through the class, he had to endure the snickering of some students who were amused by their teacher's side remark. That surely wouldn't have been the case if it was them.

_'Pathetic, he's using his position to compensate the unimportant person he is.'_

The student came back after an awful long time. This time he looked different. His skin was pale, his face was completely expressionless, and he was...moaning?

From their position, the sitting teens weren't able to see the bite wound on the once shy, and now dead guy's arm.

"Mr. Tanimura, sit back at your place."

The self-satisfied teacher didn't bother to take a single look at the student he gladly humiliated several minutes ago. There were tests that needed to be corrected for the next class, and those were by far more important.

The commanding tone he constantly held in his voice whenever he felt like pushing someone around truly made him feel extatic. Two full seconds had to pass for him to notice nothing had moved. In order to avoid being a victim of the following sadistic behaviour, most of the young people in the classroom knew to remain as quiet as possible. Only a certain CEO didn't belong to the frightened. The only reason for him to also stay silent, and to compfortably lean on the back of his chair, was the small bit of entertainment that would follow. Boredom really was an asshole...

"Do you need an extra invitation?! I command you to go, and to sit down!"

Tsuruoka, thinking his pointed finger and the yelling would be enough, turned back to his current work, and resumed by picking up his cartridge pen.

Again, an opressive silence. All of them could hear it. Someone was breathing vey hard. It sounded as if a proud chain smoker tried to jog a few minutes after years of strict denying of any kind of sports.

Determined to find the weird and loud breather, Seto scanned the whole room. The origin turned out to be no one else but the still standing Tanimura.

_'Looks like someone's going to pass out. What the hell is wrong with his eyes?'_

Before Seto could think any further, a concerned voice filled the silence.

"Uh, Mr. Tsuruoka, sir, I think we should take him to the infirmary, he-"

"Mr. Muto, detention. As for you,-WAAAAH!"

The man was just done with hysterically standing up, pointing his finger at Yugi, and wanted to turn around to face the reason of his stress as he realized that a rough embrace, and some sharp teeth were burying themselves deep into the flesh of his neck.

_'What the FUCK?!'_

Were the only words Seto was now able to think of as he, and everyone else stood up, and the individual reactions started taking control over them.

Soon, the air was filled with the sound of people screaming, crying, and running to the back of the room. The bitter stench of vomit was the cherry on top of the bloody horror. No wonder...The 'love bite' victim was now missing an impressive amount of skin, and judging by the amounts of blood that came shooting out of his neck in a repetitive rythm, it was obvious that the artery had been ripped up.

"Jou! What should we do?!"

Yugi was standing in the middle of the class, right behind Jou, Honda, Anzu and Ryu, who were still fighting with themselves. What shoud they do? In what danger would they throw themselves in, if they tried to interrupt the weird biting attack?

"Dude, is Tanimura just...eating our teacher?!" Honda asked in disbelief. It looked like someone was enjoying an extremely delicious meal...

"I...I don't know! Anzu, call the police!"

"What do you think I'm doing? There's no one available!"

As Seto thought about the options they had, he noticed the noise outside, and saw the same cruel scenes. With only one target in mind, he let his quick steps lead him to the massacre that could be straight from a sick zombie movie. No second thought was wasted as the nearest chair was grabbed by him, and slammed right on Tanimura's head.

"Oh my God!"

"He killed Tanimura!"

"Waaaah!"

"Mommy!"

"Kaiba, you just killed the guy! What the hell is wrong with you?!"

Jou and his friends knew very well of Seto's aggressive tendences, but that he would dare to murder someone in front of at least 15 witnesses was clearly too extreme.

With a pointed finger towards the windows, and annoyed by the ignorant question, the older Kaiba tried to make them understand why he acted like this.

"Take a look outside, mutt!"

Seto didn't have the time to talk any further because of Mr. Tsuruoka who was apparently bored from just staying dead. He lunged forward to get nearer to the delicious looking Seto, but said one reacted fastly by giving him the same medicine Tsuruoka got. The body instantly crashed down at his feet.

"We need to get out of here!"

"Come on!"

"Wait. I need my school bag!"

"Forget it, come with us!"

A bunch of girls hysterically opened the door again and tried to run out of the class in order to flee to a safe place. All the remaining students heard was their horrible screams and cries for help.

Suddenly Seto's phone ringed, getting him out of his thoughts.

"Hello? Isono?"

_"Oh good, you're alive! I'm so glad! We-"_

"Where is Mokuba? Is he alright?"

_"Yes, he is. We are currently before the schools bunker. We're going inside! These things are everywhere. Just know that we are here, and that we are safe!"_

"That's good to know, thank you for calling. Listen I'm going to get you out of there, stay in there, no matter what. You won't be able to know how many of these freaks will be standing on the outside. Give Mokuba the phone."

_"Seto! Are you alright!?"_ The smaller Kaiba sounded as is he was desperately crying.

I'm alright, Mokuba. Listen to what Isono tells You, I'm coming, alright?"

_"Alright, take care of Yourself, Seto."_  
"I will, now get inside. Bye Mokuba."

_"Bye."_

Not wanting to waste any precious time anymore, he carefully walked towards the classroom door and opened it without making much noise. He was already planing on how to get into Mokuba's school unharmed, but the awfully silent hallway was disturbing.

"Wait, Kaiba!"

_'Great, now they're following me.'_

"What do you want?"

"We need to stick together!" The large group was lightly jogging to keep up with him, not knowing where he was heading to.

"Do whatever you want."

What he said was true, he didn't care about how they did what they did. All that mattered to him was to have Mokuba by his side again. Sure, he was safe with Isono right now, but it just wasn't the same as having his little brother with him so that he would be able to protect him from whatever was happening now.

Seto finally reached the door he was heading to the whole time; the janitor's supply closet. He had a certain tool in mind that could help him let the heads of these...Weird zombie like things explode like watermelons.

Unfortunately the door was closed.

"Great..." The astonished looks he got for simply kicking a door open were annoying. Couldn't they do anything else than to stand there?

"Since you decided to follow me, look out for these things!"

"Wait, I'm afraid of them!"

Seto who was already in the quite big closet could never stand that gold digger they called 'Miho'.

"Since when do I care! Just scream or something, damnit!"

"Kaiba, what are you looking for?"Jou entered the closet after Seto. Ah, finally someone decided to move.

"An adequate killing instrument. A crowbar...There!"

"Are there two of them?"

"Yes, want one?"

"Of course. I think there isn't much more we could use in here."

"Obviously not."

"Jou, Kaiba, come out! There are two of them!" Anzu was used to go through weird situations with their friends, but that scenario...Was usually a horror movie's content she used to watch on the TV whenever her parents weren't at home to control her.

The two armed teens rushed and looked out for the unwanted enemies Anzu warned them of. One of them had lost an entire arm, and the other one had a giant black hole where there surely was a stomach before. A disgusting sight. And an even more disgusting smell.

Jou and Seto were ready to run towards them as even more of them came around the corner.

"We should head to the roof!"

"Then do what, Mutt? The roof's a living trap, and I need to get to Mokuba anyway."

One thing was for sure, when even Seto Kaiba started running, you should do the same. Each one of them realized where he was heading to; The main entrance. Unfortunately a lot of students had considered doing the same. The group was standing on the stairs that should lead down to the front doors, but going down there didn't seem to be so healthy. It was a pure bloodbath. Innards, Eyes, arms, legs, everything, really everything seemed to be comestible to these weird dead mutations.

"Shit..." As Seto desperately thought about a second possibility to escape, he forgot that there were 8 other people with him who were also able to think about that.

"We could jump out of the window!"

"Ryu, are you crazy? We're on the second floor!" Miho didn't really appreciate the thought of jumping out of a window. She would probably break her ankle, making it impossible for her to flee.

"Ryu's right! We could jump into the pool!"Yugi thought about the pool which was at an isolated place, so that no perverts from the outside could enjoy some sweet pictures when the girls were playing volleyball in the water...

"Yugi's right!"

Those cannibals wouldn't manage to get in there since the only entrance was a massive metallic door on the basement. Seto had to hide how surprised he was. Never would he have thought of them actually being able to think ahead. He thought more of headless chicken running in circles hoping that doing so would solve everything.

"Okay, we should hurry, looks like they noticed us!" He started running towards the biology classroom, with Yugi, Anzu, Jou, Otogi, Hanasaki, Miho, Honda and Ryu closely behind him.

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_**And there was chapter two! Yes, I love zombie plots; Resident Evil, The Walking Dead, 28 Days/Weeks Later, High School Of The Dead...and so on and so forth. I only find it extremely difficult to not get too close to other plots (movies, books, or whatever). That's why it took me that long to figure out how to plan the group's path. Right now, I'm stuck a bit because of an idea I had, and I'm a bit afraid of it sounding as if I'm copying, but they're only in the same kind of building so I may be freaking out over nothing XD**_

_**Thank you for the interest and for reviewing! Again, the next update will be in about two weeks, it all depends on my shedule.**_

_**I hope you liked it! Greets, Emi;)**_


	3. 3 Hopefully A Nightmare

_**I thought that an update on halloween would fit, especially with this plot. Thank you all very much for the nice reviews and the positive encouragement! I somehow found out how to continue, but it's hard to combine the events with the flow. Ah well, it'll surely work out.**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-gi-oh! I'm not gaining any profits by posting this! I just own the plot.**_

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**Chapter 3. Hopefully A Nightmare**

"Get in! Get in!" Jou and Seto were fighting at least five zombies as the rest of the group ran into the seemingly empty room. Anzu stood behind the door, eagerly-and almost dying from panic- waiting for both to get inside so that she could close it. Jou came in at first, Seto was the second, but he was being tightly followed by one of them. Anzu forcefully closed the door, but she noticed something didn't go very well-There was an arm preventing her from isolating herself and her friends from death, and it wasn't Seto's arm...Because he was inside the classroom.

"Mazaki, open the door!"

"What? No! They're going to get in!"

"You can't hold the door forever!"

"Anzu, open the door!"

"Jou, they're going to get in!"

"Not if Kaiba pushes them out!"

She looked back to Seto, and he nodded.

"Okay! ."

Finally, Anzu did what she was told, so that he managed to kick the nearest of them in the torso, causing it and a few other ones to fall back. That gave Anzu enough time to close the door properly. As soon as she and Seto were out of the way, Honda, Otogi and Ryu started to put the available desks and chairs in front in order to reinforce it. The other ones went to examine the height they would have to jump down. Miho was still not liking the idea as she starred down with a worried look.

"I told you it's too high! Now we're trapped in here and we're going to die like the others!"

"Can someone make her shut up?!"

"Hold it, Kaiba, can't you see she's afraid?!"

"She makes me hear it clearly enough, pencil head!"

"Guys, guys! The door is moving!"

All eyes were now glued to the door, to see if Yugi was really right, or if he was already imagining things from too much adrenaline flowing through his veins.

They all heard a horrible predictioning cracking, and that's where they saw it. The small crack and the pale hands trying to get through it...

Jou hurried and opened the large window. He knew, if these monsters would successfully get inside before he and his friends escaped, they wouldn't make it out alive.

"Come on! Stop starring at the door!"

Yugi was the first one to jump down, into the fresh, and almost cool water. Jou and Seto were both standing on each side, helping the others getting up. Then came Ryu, Honda, Miho (Who was pratically pushed out by Seto), then Hanasaki, Otogi, and as he saw the undead sticking their heads into the room, Jou started panicking and jumped himself.

"What are you waiting for, Mazaki?"

Anzu looked at Seto, who was already standing on the frame and holding his left hand out to help her,with a horrified look.

"I-I can't swim! The water's deep there!"

"O.o' What? Are you serious? Just jump down!"

It sounded delusional. Who would decide to get eaten alive by some cannibals, instead of drowning? Nah, both sounded like a crappy and painful death.

The moaning got louder, stressing Seto even more.

"I'll help you out, just come on, damnit!"

The protecting door broke loose, and the desks and chairs were partially pushed aside.

Anzu was solely guided by her fear, and her trust in Seto's known ability to keep his promises as she took his hand. They managed to jump down in the last moment, right before the bloody hands were able to reach them, and landed with a big splash.

Seto saw the panic in Anzu's face as she struggled to get back to the surface to be able to breathe. He pushed her up and led her to the edge before getting out himself.

_'Mokuba's school is only 500 meters away. I just hope there aren't that much of these things out there.'_

Seto quickly ran towards the 2m high yellow wall, jumped and pulled himself up to look over the situation at the parking lots. A lot of people drove to school with their cars, but not all of them. Mostly the teachers, and the few students with more or less wealthy parents. In comparison to himself, of course. Fortunately they weren't all new hybrid models that were impossible to break up without a computer.

_'I really doubt there would be any laws holding me back from getting a bit criminal anymore.'_

"Eh, Kaiba?"

Seto turned around and jumped down again. It was useless to say that he would make a target out of himself by standing on the wall like that.

"What?"

"You're going to get Mokuba out of his school, right?"

"Yes. Why?"

"Well, shouldn't we first find out what is happening?"

"My brother is priority number one. And as far as I know, your sister attends the same classes as Mokuba does. What miserable brother you are, really..."

"Watch what you say, moneybags!"

Jou had to be held back from Honda and Otogi once again.

"Guys, this isn't the moment to fight!"

Anzu already saw where this was leading to, and that was surely not what they needed right now.

They were all on the verge, and a fight would make them fall over it. She needed to change the topic.

"We need to focus on getting Mokuba and Shizuka out! Kaiba, what did you see up there?"

"Total chaos. We'll have to break up two cars. Anyone there who knows how to drive?"

Only Jou, Otogi, Anzu, Yugi and Honda lifted their hands, enough for two cars at least.

"I assume I'm the only one who knows how to short-circuit a car?"

"You know how to short-cirtuit a car?" Jou couldn't believe it; Rich boy?

"Yes, but that's not the point right now. Anyone else?"

Jou had gone through a lot with his ex-gang. They were into a lot of crimes, that included stealing cars. Of course he knew how to proceed, but why Seto knew how to do such thing was a complete mistery to him.

"What are you planning?"

"I assume you all plan on sticking together, so we'll need two cars. I'm going to get my brother and Katsuya his sister. I don't think walking would be wise under these circumstances..."

Seto slowly turned his voice down as he lifted his gaze to the windows they just used to jump down. The immense pressure had already caused the glass to crack, and it was only a matter of time until the material definetly shattered under the weight of the seemingly insensitive monsters.

"I think we shouldn't stay here. The glass isn't sturdy enough."

They all nodded in unison, and started to walk towards the wall. Seto got up once again, Jou came after him, slightly surprised that the CEO, who was probably sitting at a computer all day, was that fit. Otogi and Honda were also able to get up by themselves. Now they had to help Miho, Anzu, Yugi, Ryo and Hanasaki who were having difficulties with pulling their own weight up.

As they stood there, they saw an almost empty parking space. Only a few of the creatures were moving around in their own, slow pace, while others were devouring the flesh of the corpses on the bloody ground. As if it wasn't the worst, some people even had the nerves to break various shop windows, and to steal their content!

This was all just a really bad nightmare, right?


	4. 4 Surprise!

_**I'm sorry that one isn't that long, but I didn't want to add anything that wouldn't fit to the chapter's concept. But don't worry, the next one shall be up sooner!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-gi-oh! I'm not gaining any profits by posting this! I just own the plot.**_

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**Chapter 4. Surprise!**

Otogi's feet were the last ones that still had to hit the ground, before they were able to run towards the two cars that were selected by Seto and Jou. The vehicles weren't big, but they would certainly be enough for their plans. The two broke up the windows with their crowbars and opened the doors to start their work. The loud glass shattering was very attracting to the roaming dead, and Miho's hysterical screaming as she saw them wasn't helping either. More and more heads turned towards them, and even more started walking in their general direction.

"Stop leading them to us, and get into the car, fuckit!"

Even though the order was thrown at Miho, the rest of the group wouldn't let him repeat that twice. The vehicles looked like a perfect protection from the masses. As Anzu sat down next to the driver's seat, she couldn't stop herself from impatiently following each one of the CEO's fast and calculated movements. He lifted his gaze from time to time to avoid getting an unwanted foul hug from one of the things that were once normal human beings. Then, finally, all doors were closed, and they were moving.

The streets looked like a true battlefield. The third world war, literally.

Buildings were burning, people were running around, controlled by their panic that directly led hem into the arms of a hungry enemy.

Another reason to be worried was definetly Seto's driving style. All but elegant...

_'He and Jou could be brothers at that point. I better not say that loud...'_ Anzu thought.

Despite all dangers that had to be faced, Mokuba's and Shizuka's school was reached. The attention they earned had been intense, indeed, but even the creatures recognized there were far more easier and slower targets. The front gates were wide open, and no living or dead people were to be seen on the school yard. The devastated place was filled with loose, single shoes, school bags, pieces of papers, an arm here, a leg there...The cool wind that blew the dust and the dirt away managed to send a shiver down their spines. How could it be that nothing was to be seen there?

"Hey Kaiba!"

Seto turned his head towards the second car, which Jou was driving.

"What?"

"Should we drive to the back of the school? There's something fishy about the front."

After a single nod, Jou's suggestion was followed, and they soon found themselves climbing through one of the open windows of a seemingly wrecked, and empty classroom.

As Seto took a look around, he got the definitive background picture for the noise he heard during the phone call with Isono and Mokuba. The small desks were upturned, books, pencils, documents, papers, and a few large puddles of blood were covering the floor.

The walls, which were paprtially covered with bloody handprints, told them the sad story of how those kids tirelessly fought and tried to defend their lifes-and failed.

"I noticed a few things about them. First, they have a very sensitive hearing. Their sense of smell is probably also distincted. We can't stop the smell, but we can avoid noise by being as silent as possible. That counts especially for you."

Seto pointed an accusing finger at Miho, visibly pissing Honda off. But he knew the CEO was right, they didn't need to be chased again. Jou stepped forward and slowly opened the door, preparing himself to be surprised by an unwanted guest. Seto already tightened his grip around the crowbar to be ready, but nothing came as they entered the corridor. It was all empty. All they heard was the echo of these beasts moaning somewhere. It didn't sound like they were only a few...

With Jou and Seto at the front, every single door was opened, hoping to find Shizuka before going down to the bunker.

Five awful minutes passed without a single encounter as they slowly kept going.

"Guys, I don't know about you, but I have a bad feeling about this." Ryu spoke everyone's thoughts. They all found the emptyness in the school strange and fishy. Where the hell were all the people that were supposed to be here?

Jou had enough of this. He was sure that Shizuka had stayed close to Mokuba and Isono, since Mokuba wasn't one to let his friends down. He was actually a very social person in comparison to his older brother.

"Let's go find the bunker, I hope Shizuka's in there..."

"Mokuba spends a lot of time with her at school, she's surely down there."

Jou looked up and stared at the back of Seto's head. _'Did he just try to encourage me?'_

They walked towards the stairs that should lead down to the basement where the bunker was. Before they were able to put their foot on a single stair, they had to refrain from gasping in horror, and hurried back to where they weren't to be seen, and hopefully not heard or smelled. They obviously had found the source of the unearthly noise...

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**_Once again, thank you all very much!_**


	5. 5 Free Flight Out Of Hell?

**_Here we go with chapter 5!_**

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-gi-oh! I'm not gaining any profits by posting this! I just own the plot.**_

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**Chapter 5: Free Flight Out Of Hell?**

The sudden desperation due to the picture in front of them had caught Seto offguard. That state didn't last more than a few seconds, which he used to think of an adequate solution. This building's structure was pratically burned in his mind. It was no overestimation. He could walk through it, and name every single room. Blindfolded, of course.

After a year of private teaching , Mokuba had started to complain and to mention the words 'public school' a lot more than usually. Seto had known that there would be no use in trying to convince his younger sibling to forget that idea. As much as he wanted to protect the boy, he couldn't bring himself to do that to Mokuba.

The boy would get older, and he would want to discover new things, places, meet other people, and probably move out of home some day.

The thought of his only living family leaving him made Seto sad, but it was no use to deny the truth. The day would come.

Private teaching meant isolation, and isolation would destroy his little brother's happy nature.

Of course there was a catch about this privilege. There were always bodyguards around, in order to keep he younger Kaiba safe. Since he remembered the countless times he got kidnapped, Mokuba had nothing against Seto's only specification.

_'And people call me paranoid...'_

There was, at his left, a corridor that lead to another one. It would also lead to the basement by forming an 'U' so that the kids won't suffocate themselves while running down to the safe room.

His target was right in the middle. _'Now I know what to do, and I hate to admit it, but I'll need their help to do what I'm planning'_

"What are we going to do now?!" Jou was whispering, but he could as well have the word 'desperated' tattooed on his forehead...Seto sighed. They would surely bother him with lots of unnecessary questions they plainly didn't have the time for right now.

"Look, go back to the stairs, just don't let them notice You! As soon as they're away, get everyone out of that bunker!"

Seto started to walk to the other side as they wanted to start their bombardment.

"No questions! Go!"

They didn't hear what he was saying, but by the way he showed them the direction they should head to, they knew there was no other option so they walked back without getting noticed.

After a few seconds they heard what Mokuba's older brother was thinking of. It was a dangerous plan.

"Oi you freaks! Come and get me!" Additionally to the screaming, Seto started kicking the thin metal door to his right.

It really worked. They started to moan, groan and to hiss as their instinct lead them to the fresh meal. The bunker was now completely forgotten, giving Jou and the rest of the group the chance to head towards the locked door.

Jou couldn't take the tension anymore, he had to know if his sister was in there.

"Mokuba, open the door!" He didn't dare to talk loudly. Maybe there were still some roamers around. Luckily Mokuba heard the barely audible knocking from the other side.

"Isono, it's Jou!"

"Jonouchi?! Open the door, Mokuba!" Shizuka's eyes were widened in surprise.

Isono on the other side was still hesitating. Should he, or should he not? If this would turn out to be a trap, and he dared to let Mokuba get hurt, then it wouldn't matter if he would get bitten or not. Death would wait for him anyway. Then they heard it again, the voice and the knocking coming from the guy Shizuka called her brother.

A sigh of relief followed as Isono saw the familiar faces waiting outside.

"Jou!"

"Shizuka! You're alive!"

Jou felt bad for barely being able to embrace his sister, but they immediately needed to head back to the cars. Who knew where Seto was running to now? Who knew if he still was running...

"Jou, where is Seto?!" Mokuba hastly scanned the dark corridor for his older brother, and they could see the fear in his eyes growing as he probably imagined the worst case.

"He's alive, right?"

"Of course, Mokuba! That's why we need to hurry, come on, everyone!"

Everyone started following Jou who started running towards the cars, always looking out. A single mistake could cost them their lives, after all. They hastly squeezed themselves into the cars, with Anzu and Jou in the driver's seats. Mokuba got pretty startled as they slowly started to ride.

"Wait, we are not driving without Seto!"

"Calm down, Mokuba, we just have to be ready to flee when...Look, there he comes!"

Anzu was right, Seto almost reached the cars, which let them sigh in relief. They soon realized that it was too early to categorize the situation as a safe one as they saw the even bigger mass of zombies coming around the same corner.

Luckily Seto managed to hastly open the door, so that Anzu and Jou could drive away. He was dishevelled and out of breath as he hugged Mokuba back.

"Mazaki, To KC headquarters."

He earned a confused look.

"Huh, why?"

"The helicopter on the roof."

Seto felt no need to say more than these words. They should've been enough information to make clear that their rescue was guaranteed.

The anger in his stomach was also holding him back from even thinking straight. Run all the way back to Mokuba's school to smash some heads sounded like the only plausible way to calm down his nerves.

How dared these creatures to chase him around as if he was a bloody steak?!

Out of rage, Seto brutally opened his door to slam it into the nearest corpse.

The sudden sound of an opening door, and the following collision startled everyone in the vehicle.

"Kaiba, what the hell?! Calm down!"

The driving Anzu gave the CEO on the backseat one of her rarely seen glares.

The meeting of their angry gazes could easily be compared to the result of boiling oil meeting water.

"The road, Anzu! The road!"

"Waah!"

Barely, but only barely, she managed to avoid what could have been an ugly accident.

"Damn, Kaiba!"

"Shut up, and drive!"

"What?!"

Right as Anzu wanted to turn around again, Ryu shouted while pointing at something in front of them. Perfect timing.

"We're there!"

Nothing that could represent any danger was in front of them, just an awfully empty, and silent forecourt.

"Why is it that empty there?"

As Yugi stepped out of the passenger seat, he carefully turned around to check the environment. Why was the rest of the city drowning in chaos, while the Kaiba Corp. skyscraper, the tallest, looked like nothing was wrong and the employees were nowhere to be seen because they were on vacation?

"You should be thankful for that..."

Seto mumbled while placing his phone on his ear. At least the solid bullet-proof glass would hold back any criminal activities directed towards his company, no matter what weapon would be used.

"Marcus?" Seto looked up to the top of the building, as if he wanted to see the guy he just called by the name, and started walking towards the large main entrance. None of them could hear what the man on the other side of the line was saying, but by the way the youngest multi-billionaire walked towards the doors of his own company, they could tell the informations weren't reassuring.

"Big brother, what's wrong?"

Mokuba always knew his older brother as a rather impatient person, and he also knew that the guy called 'Marcus' would have been fired for not coming straight to the point. But...Was that the reason for Seto to walk that slowly towards the huge reinforced glass doors? And why did he look like he was searching something? Was he searching the security guys?

"Hey Kaiba, why is it that dark in there?" Still waiting for an answer, the nervous Seto turned around to tell them what went wrong.

"The electricity went off ten minutes ago. He's trying to fix it."

Jou nodded, understanding the problem.

_"Mr. Kaiba, sir, the lights should go on in a few seconds."_

"Good. The darkening effect in the main entrance should stop as soon as the energy is back. Hurry."

_"Yes, sir."_

Finally, they all stood directly before the entrance, waiting for the doors to their freedom to open. The tension almost got unbearable as the seconds passed and passed . Seto frowned, and got nearer to the impeccably clean glass to check if the darkening effect was fading away.

And it got off.

"Waaah!"

No one had ever managed to startle Seto Kaiba, no matter if wanted, or unwanted. Mokuba knew so, for a fact. The boy had attempted to scare the shit out of his brother on countless occasions, but not even his best ideas had succeeded.

The rest of the group never noticed that exceptional, and highly out of character reaction. They were also occupied with the sudden appearance in front of them.

Bloody hands, arms, or even shoulders kept clapping against the apparently very annoying glass. The faces that belonged to those mutilated body parts were from the now ex-employees of the company. One of them, Seto's secretary, as far as Mokuba could recognize, pressed her unhealthy looking colored tongue against the luckily stable barrier and licked it as if it was as delicious as her young boss's face she now desired to taste.

One of her eyes was missing, as well as roughly half of her head's skin.

"Mh, I always knew she was weird..."

Seto commented while they started walking away from what seemed to be the official entrance to hell.

"Marcus, take the helicopter on the roof and land it down here...What do you mean, you don't know how to?! Is there someone else with you?"

Oh how he regretted that he didn't make all of his security men take extra courses in flying that damned thing...

_"I'm sorry, sir. Phillip is also here with me, he sais he has some experience, but only a few hours, though."_

"That should be enough, now start it, damnit!"

His impatience was now returning. No wonder, due to their collective shouting two minutes ago, the nearest roamers had started entering the Kaiba Corp areall.

"Have some patience with the guy, Kaiba! No one's perfect!"

Anzu was pitying the poor, to her unknown, Marcus. How could Kaiba expect that he'd know how to fly a damn helicopter out of nowhere?

"Oh, spare me your hippie bullshit, Mazaki! He has to act perfectly right now, it's our only way to get out of here!"

"You're attracting even more of them with your yelling!"

Honda yelled, hoping that their transporting possibility would touch the floor soon enough. And then, finally, the machine was in sight.

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**_So, what do you think? Should I be an ass and make them miss that opportunity?_**


	6. Chapter 6 Enough For A Small Army!

_**So, here I am with chapter 6! Thank you guys sooo much for the interest and for sharing your opinions with me through your reviews! This chapter is extra long!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-gi-oh! I'm not gaining any profits by posting this! I just own the plot.**_

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**Chapter 6: Enough For A Small Army!  
**

"Okay, try to keep it stable!"

The experienced Seto and Isono were looking up in the sky, where the unstable looking helicopter was flying. Of course Seto knew under what pressure he was putting his employees, but there were even more dead walking towards the group, challenging his pratically non-existent patience.

The sudden screaming coming out of the phone's speaker, directly into his ear, tore Seto out of his worried thoughts.

"Marcus? What's going on?!"

Yugi, Jou, and the rest of them weren't hearing what was being said, or not, in that case, but it meant no good. They could tell by the way the helicopter started randomly jerking in all possible directions.

_"It's Phillip! He's infected! He's-waaaaaaaaaah!"_

Shortly after the painful sounding, and high pitched scream, their only way to escape mercilessly crashed down on the concrete before exploding, and getting ripped in thousands of metallic pieces that were now flying in different directions. Luckily, none of the group was hit.

"No! No, no, no! Please No!" Shizuka fell on her knees, desperately crying, and feeling like giving up. The different emotions that went through each one of their different heads weren't to describe. The fire that would surely last for quiet a while was hot, huge, and most of all loud. No matter how depressing that disappointment was, the movement still had to be made. Especially now.

"Come on, Shizuka. We need to go."

Jou softly grabbed his younger sister by the shoulder, and took her right hand to help her standing up.

"To my mansion."

Were the only words Seto pretically threw at the worried blonde before getting into the driver's seat. At least, the idea of hiding in a huge, isolated mansion was calming and somehow comforting. The helicopter had been more attractive though...

Fifteen full minutes. That was the time they needed to get to their new hiding spot, and to notice they were the lucky kind of survivors.

No word was spoken on the insides of both cars. What should they say anyways? Being stuck in the post-apocalyptic version of Domino City, where blood and innards on the streets were a normal sight, was something that required lots of digestion, and a very strong stomach.

_'What do these geeks expect?'_

Seto thought while sighing, and sitting down on one of the black leather sofas in the huge living room. While the others sat down at their chosen places, the owner of their hiding spot grabbed the remote-control for the giant flat screen TV.

As Seto expected, the local news knew of only one topic. The irony was that not even the usually 'all knowing' reporters knew what exactly was going on. The same advices were repeated over and over, telling them what they already learned on the hard way.

Seto didn't havea single nerve left to talk to anyone right now. He took a look around himself and noticed that the others were also in a bad condition. Jou was looking down and nervously fumbling with his finger nails. Yugi had a worried look on his face and was looking at Anzu who had an arm around Shizuka's shoulder. Mokuba was sitting next to him, hiding his face behind his bangs. No one should see him crying.

"Eh, Kaiba? Can You tell me where the toilets are?"

_'Great...'_ "Go through this door, first on the left."

After Otogi closed the door behind himself, Seto finally wanted to say something, but was interrupted as soon as he opened his mouth.

"GAAAAAAAAAAHH! HELP!"

The whole group shot up from their halfway compfortable position and ran towards the door Otogi opened a few seconds ago. What was happening now? Couldn't they at least rest a bit? Was it too much to ask?

Isono was the first to see the gruesome scenario. Otogi was laying underneath the security man, who forcefully kept his victim on the ground while devouring the flesh of its stomach.

"OTOGI!"

"OH MY GOD!"

"HELP HIM!"

Before anyone was able to rip the agressor away, they heard and saw two lound shots passing through Otogis and the security guy's head. Everyone except of Seto and Jou covered their ears and got down on their knees in fear of getting hurt.

In his criminal past, Jou already had a few guns in his hands, but he was lucky that he never had to actually injure someone with them. Who knows how many years he would have gone to jail for that...

"You murderer!" Shizuka screeched at Isono while she slammed him to the nearest wall and started hitting him in the chest until her brother grabbed her from behind and held her back.

"Shizuka, Otogi was dead anyway! He surely wouldn't have wished to turn into one of these things!" Even though she struggled, cried and screamed, Jou managed to carry her back to the living room. Seto couldn't help but walking up and down nervously. It happened too fast to even realize it, and even if he never really cared abot the guy, he still was a part of their group, and he was killed in his nown mansion on top of that.

"We need to close the doors and windows, and to look if there are more of these things, Isono."

"You're right, let's go."

"Wait, I'm coming with You!"

Jou stood up and hastly followed them as they left the room, slightly insulted that Seto didn't ask him to come with them. Sitting around and doing nothing while others were working and looking out for their safety was no option to him.

While they walked through the huge mansion, Jou kept wondering about all the space in there, and why the Kaibas needed it when they were only two. He scolded himself for even thinking about such a trivial matter while they were locking every single window.

Silence surrounded them as they quietly walked back to the closed living room. Seto thought about how he hated the fact that they were actually in his home, where he lived and had his privacy. Well, until now. He opened the door and was greeted by the broom stick they still had from school.

"What the FUCK?!" He held the left side of his forehead which instantly started to bleed. "Seto! Are You Okay?" Mokuba was already by his side.

"..."

"Shizuka! What the hell was that?!"

Jou would never admit it loudly, but he was really glad to have Seto who directly recognized the danger and ensured their escape with his fast reaction. A fight because Shizuka started overreacting was not what they needed right now. Of course Jou understood his little sister was scared, but in order to survive, they somehow needed to collect themselves.

Seto did nothing to her. He just walked towards the couch and sat down. The nerves he should have to deal with her were simply not present.

"Kaiba, I need to get my grandpa out of the game shop." Said a worried Yugi.

Hanasaki suddenly got up from his seat.

"My parents!"

"Okay, wait, we're going to get them, but at first I need to know who is in the city."

Hanasaki said that his parents should be at home, as usual since they worked from there since about a year. Anzu's parents were on a business trip in the USA, and as far as she was concerned, they wouldn't bother much about her. Jou earned a shocked look from Shizuka as he told Seto they wouldn't need to get their father, but their mother worked in a lawyer's office. She threw a fit and insisted on getting their father because he also belonged to the family.

Jou sighed heavily before promising her to do so. Miho told them her mother was at home, and that her father left them a long time ago. Ryu's parents were logically in Great Britain.

Seto waited for them to be done with telling where their parents were. He was slightly annoyed, since it didn't concern himself, but managed to hide it, for Mokuba's sake. He knew the boy would want to help them out, so there was no choice left.

"After we got everyone we need to shut down everything in here."

"But Kaiba, didn't You already lock everything?" Ryu asked.

"Didn't you see how the windows started breaking at school? I don't know if these things will manage to climb up the gates. If they do so they'll probably manage to break through the windows in a matter of time -" Seto was interrupted by a hysterical Miho.

"Do You mean we're not safe in here? I thought were rich and had expensive securuity systems!"

Seto sighed and rolled his eyes. All that bimbo saw was the money he had.

"Are you just playing dumb or is it the sad truth? The security alerts the police and the bodyguards. We have to take care of the rest. And I don't think the police is available right now."

"How are we supposed to do that? Even if we close everything down, they still will manage to get in sometime. Either way, we're screwed!"

"Don't be such a whiny bitch, mutt! Can't you see that you're making everything worse?!"

"Don't call me mutt! What the heck do we have against these creatures? Nothing, Kaiba, nothing!"

Seto shook his head no and laughed a bit.

"Aw, come on. Give me a chance..."

He stood up and started to walk towards the door that led to the main hall and opened it. Despite the skeptical looks that were send to him, he asked them to follow. He used his sleeve to brush the blood from his face away and walked towards the stairs where he opened a door that was kind of hidden. With good reason.

They followed him until he stopped before a big metallic door and opened it through a retina scan.

"Katsuya, if you still think we're helpless after you saw what's in there, you are allowed to punch me in the face..."

Oh how he enjoyed seeing their eyes widening as he revealed what was inside...

"Holy shit..."

"Oh my God..."

"What the?-"

All they saw was a big room. A big room filled with all sorts of guns and weapons. There was a big metallic island in the middle which Seto opened by simply pushing a button. It contained an awfully large amount of ammunition.

Yugi seriously started to get worried. Why in the world was Seto Kaiba keeping that many dangerous killing machines at his home? He would understand if it was one or two handguns; The CEO had been threatened and agressed on many occasions after all, but this?

"Kaiba, what is the meaning of this? This is enough material for a small army!"

"Like I said, we need to take care of ourselves."

"But-How and where did you get all of these? Do you know how to use them?"

"Yugi, Kaiba Corp wasn't always a gaming company." Seto leaned on the island and put his hands in his pockets. All questionning eyes were on him. Were they truly trat slow?

"Just do the math. It was specialized in all sorts of military weapons, tactics, ammo, planning and machines."

"Does that mean that you actually know how to handle all of these?" Jou asked, still unable to believe what he was seeing.

"Yes."

"Wait! Have you thought about us? I never had a gun in my hands! No normal person ever did!"

_'Oh how I hate that gold digger...'_ "I'll just show all of you how." _'Though I'm sure the lack of intelligence should be an obstacle.'_

"How are we supposed to get that many people? We only have two cars, and there's not many space."

"Honda's right, and what about these things? I don't know if we'll manage to drive past them."

Seto had to admit that Jou had a point. That's where he remembered one of Gozaburo's leftovers. He didn't have the time to get rid of that one until now, and it seemed to be their advantage.

"I might have something that could be useful."

Seto walked out of the room and led them to the garage, where he kept all the cars. Jou and Honda kept drooling over the perfectly polished expensive vehicles. As Seto stopped at the end of the hall, they saw three huge closed garage doors. He took his keys out and inserted one of them into the security box, which caused the three doors to roll up, and to expose what was behind them.

"Holy cow..."

"That's a freaking tank!" Honda and Jou, like always, couldn't keep their mouths shut.

"I know."

"Master Kaiba...I thought you already got rid of the Humvees and the tank?"

"I guess I forgot about them."

"Well, I guess that's our advantage. Do you know how to drive it?" Yugi asked, still gawking at the vehicles.

"Yes, but I'm not going to be in it. The tank will only be used to keep the road clean, the Humvees will manage to roll over everything."

"I want to drive it!" Jou climbed on top of it, and opened the skylight. "Come on, Honda!"

"Uh, I don't know...I think I'll stick with the Hmvee. Say, Kaiba, is that the original HMMWV?"

Seto's eyes slightly widened in surprise. "Yes, the original. I want to know who wants to come with us."

Except of Isono, all of them lifted their hands. The bodyguard knew he would have to stay inside the mansion.

"Okay, I'd say that anyone who knows their parents are out of town stay here. Isono, Mokuba and Katsuya's sister stay in here."

"Yeah, Shizuka, I want you to stay safe."

"Seto, I don't want you to go!"

Mokuba did not like the idea of his big brother driving around to fight with dangerous death bringing zombies. What if he got bitten? He didn't want to lose his brother! His world would crash, he would be all alone, even if there still were Yugi& Co. They were not his brother, and no one could replace him. Ever.

"Mokuba, I'll be alright. I need you to prepare all of the guns with Isono. And no, you can't come with us, I want you to stay safe."

They all watched as Jou and Seto argued with their younger siblings. It was impressive to watch both of them at the same time. Even if they were enemies, they were exactly the same at that point. Mokuba pulled his brother down by the sleeve of his right arm, to be able to whisper his question in Seto's ear.

"Seto, why? You don't even care about them."

"Mokuba, you know about the training I had to go through with Gozaburo. I am specialized, you know that. I want to make sure the tank and the cars come back, they're our only transport possibility."

"Oh..."

It took them quiet some time to convince Mokuba and Shizuka that they needed to go, though they didn't really know about Seto's true reasons.

"Okay, then let's go! Kaiba, can you show me how to drive that thing?"

"You were the one whining about the defense. I'll first show you how to handle a gun."

It was hard to keep up with Seto's fast and long strides as they walked back to the weapon room. He opened a drawer right underneath the displayed rifles and took 11 guns out of it. He placed them on the floor, and took additional mags out of the island.

"These are called 'Glock 19'. Pretty simple to use, reliable and safe. That means if you accidentally drop it on the floor no shot will be released. That doesn't mean you don't have to be careful though. Your index finger is not on the trigger unless you have a target. You shouldn't aim at someone or something if you don't plan on shooting them. It has fifteen plus one shot. That means; If the magazine, fifteen shots, is full, you still have enough space to add one bullet into the shaft. The magazine will slide out if you press this knob here." Seto showed them the small black knob which was located on the left side of the trigger.

"Be careful while using them. They're loud, and we know that noise attracts these things."

"But Kaiba, how else are we supposed to knock them out?"

"Honda's right. We can't use the broomstick the whole time." Jou added.

"We still have the crowbars. Mokuba, you still have the baseball bat?"

Mokuba gasped.

"Yes! I even have two of them! I had practice and accidentally took one of the schoo'ls bats with me. I'm going to get them!" He immediately stood up, and started to run towards the stairs.

"Mokuba, wait!" Before he stood up, Seto hastly loaded one of the guns, and went after his brother. Before he got out, he ordered Isono to show everyone how to load the mags.

"Mokuba, wait!"

Finally, Mokuba waited for his brother.

"What is it, Seto? I'm going to get the baseball bats!"

"I know, but definetly not alone! From this moment on, you won't go anywhere without me, or Isono, okay? It's really important!"

"But Seto...I thought you checked the whole mansion?"

"Yes, I did, but I'm still worried about you. Come on, let's go and get them. I need to go to my room after that."

"Okay."

Seto could not describe how sad he felt. This wasn't what Mokuba deserved. He didn't need to see atrocious looking corpses wandering around, longing for fresh flesh and blood. The kid knew what his older brother was forced to lean during their tormentors lifetime. Of course it was all about military; tactics, strategies, psychology (To analyse the enemy), all about different weapons, their construction...How to lead a squad...Yep, Seto knew a lot of things. There is no need to mention that he got to learn them under strong drill. Very strong drill.

Never would the brothers have thought that this knowledge would be useful one day.

"Okay, I got them. What do you need from your room?"

"Change clothes. You should do that too, I don't think we'll need the uniforms in the next few days."

"Okay."

Mokuba quickly changed into his free time clothes before they walked to the other side of the corridor and entered Seto's bedroom.

"Do you still have the miliary stuff Gozaburo let you wear?"

"Of course not, I bought the same kind of pants in black, You know, with sidepockets and all."

"Okay."

Mokuba sat down on his brothers bed and waited for him to change. It didn't take long for Seto to come out. He was wearing the pants he talked about a few minutes ago. They ended where his heavy working boots started. As usual, he wasn't wearing anything that didn't cover his neck. He generally avoided letting people seeing that spot on him. The black turtleneck did a perfect job.

"Mokuba, You'll need to tie your hair together, it would be even better to cut them."

"Huh? Why?"

"I don't know if you noticed, but these zombies, or whatever they are-They grab their victims. They could grab you by the hair because of their length."

"Okay, I'll let Anzu cut them."

"Hm? Why Mazaki?"

"Well, she surely knows how to cut them so that they won't look bad."

"O-kay. We should go down."

They walked back to the weapon room, where Isono was done with his instructions. It seemed that they were all disciplined and had pretty much respect towards the killing instruments in their hands. Seto just hoped it would last.

All of them looked up as the two brothers walked back into the room. The change of clothes was immediately noticed.

"Yo Kaiba, what's with the clothes? You look like an assassin."

"Except that I get no money for killing zombies."

He walked over to the wall right in front of him, and took an AK-47 from it..

"Hey, I want one of the big ones too!"

"Do you know how to handle it?"

"Uh, no."

"Forget it, we don't have the time for intructions."

"Oh but you know how to use them, right?"

"Yes, mutt, I know."

"I highly doubt that! You just like to show off as always!"

Seto didn't need to hear that twice, not with his lack of patience. He instantly aimed at Jou, to show him how serious he was about the fact that he was the best at shooting. This mutt should stop being so ignorant about things he just knew nothing about.

"Wanna bet?"

The whole group of people jumped backwards, with shocked looks on their faces. Was Seto being serious, or was it just a twisted joke? Yugi tried to calm the short tempered CEO down, while carefully choosing his words.

"Kaiba, please...Put the gun down..."

"I'm not going to shoot him. I don't want any mess in this room. Just know that I know how to handle weapons. Any kind of them, without hesitation."

Seto ceased to aim at Jou's head, fastened the rifle on his upper body, and walked over to the other side of the island. Still a bit afraid of another drastic reaction, Jou and the others preferred to keep their mouths as they watched him jerk the telescopic truncheon open. After that he only took two guns and put them into the holsters on each sides of his hips.

"We should go."

Before starting to follow him, they all looked at each other with a worried look.

"Don't worry, he's just pissed."

"Mokuba, he just pointed a gun at me!"

"But he wouldn't have pulled the trigger, believe me."

The smaller Kaiba decided not to answer their accusation anymore, and started following his brother. He knew what made Seto react that way. After his brother had to endure Gozaburo's terrible training, he was build to be the perfect killing machine, with no soul and conscience at all. Seto was still working on himself in order to change, and then came someone like Jou, and doubted on the abilitys he was forced to work so hard on. That was plainly the reason why he couldn't tolerate someone like Jounouchi mock and doubt his abilitys.

Seto sounded clearly calmer as he started explaining the Humvees and the tank. He mentioned how important it was that they knew how to handle everything. If something would go wrong they would have to flee and mistakes could easily cost them their lives.

"Okay, Katsuya wanted the tank, who else?"

Hanasaki shily lifted his hand. Seto's bare presence was very intimidating, but his wish to drive a tank had more power over him.

"Good. You-" He pointed at Honda. "-wanted the Humvee, right?"

"Yea!"

"And the only one left who knows how to drive is Mazaki. You know how to split up."

"Where are you going to be?" Anzu asked.

"I'll sit on top of the tank, to keep a look at the surroundings."

"Sounds reasonable:"

Seto only nodded to Jou's statement before opening the garage door that lead outside. Along with Jou and Honda, Seto walked to the outside towards the gates in order to check the situation. It looked quite good. There was only one of these roamers who just passed by, without noticing them.

The three walked back and prepared themselves to drive away.

"Mr. Kaiba, I think we should analyze what we know about their behaviour, it may help all of You to come back unharmed."

Seto nodded and crossed his arms before his chest before he started resuming.

"I don't think they're able to communicate at all since all they do is to moan. I also don't know if they have a sensitive sense of smell, maybe that's the case, we'll have to find out. The only thing that is sure is their extremely sensitive hearing. That means no screaming around or whatsoever. And if You start shooting around, there better be a damn good reason because we'll have to get away fastly."

Silence followed the instructions that sounded as if they came straight from a zombie killing video game. Even Seto had to collect himself a bit before nodding and moving, making them understand that the mission had to start.

Jou and Hanasaki entered the tank, while Miho and Honda climbed into the first Humvee, and Anzu and Yugi sat into the second one. Seto was about to get up on the green vehicle as Mokuba held him back. The others would have to wait, Mokuba was much more important to him than their families.

"Bis brother, take care of yourself, alright?"

Seto hugged his worried brother back and rubbed his back.

"I'll be okay, Mokuba, you shouldn't worry."

"It's hard not to do so..."

Before standing up, Seto ruffled Mokuba's hair. It broke his heart to see his younger brother on the verge of desperation because he was going with this group of nerds...But what should he do? They needed the vehicles badly, and Mokuba would never let them get their parents without the precious equipment. That meant he would be worried either way.

"I'll have to wait before getting up. These two could get in the area if I don't knock them off."

Seto quickly walked towards the gates, and gave Isono the sign to open the gate with the remote control. At first the group was afraid of him getting hurt, but as soon as they saw how he used his telescopic truncheon to break the zombies heads open as if they were watermelons, the group was sure: he wouldn't have any scruples to proceed like that. As reassuring as this was, it was also worrying.

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_**End of chapter 6. I hope I managed to keep the tension through that one. The next chapter is filled with frightening encounters.**_

_Anzu slightly jumped at the coldness in his eyes, as she finally noticed he was looking at her. It sent a shiver down her spine, but before she could come down from it, she had to deal with the sight of her best friend getting a knee between his legs. Jou instantly doubled over and grabbed his family jewels._

_"And now you can stand up, and try to find your mother between them."_

_Seto grabbed Jou at the back of his school jacket, and pulled him up to show him the group of zombies that were stumbling towards them-en masse._

_**See you guys in the next chapter!**_


	7. Chapter 7 Unusual Family Reunions

_**Another chapter!**_

_**Sedra, don't worry I'm not bothered ;) You'll be surprised by how some of your ideas come close to what I've planned!**_

_**I really liked the questions some of you asked, and I can assure you, the answers will come in the later chapters. I think this story won't be a short one!**_

_**I've created a DeviantART account this morning as I ended up surfing a bit for some inspiration while working, and I think I'll create a few wallpapers to this story, let's see when the time's available!**_

_**The profile name will be posted on my page, as well as on this story.**_

_**Enjoy!)**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-gi-oh! I'm not gaining any profits by posting this! I just own the plot.**_

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**Chapter 7. Unusual Family Reunions**

As soon as Seto positioned himself, they started to head towards the seemingly empty streets. Was that a good or a bad sign? They would have to find out while driving. The noise they made was all but irrelevant, but luckily, well more or less, there were other fighting people attracting the dead with their screaming, running and shooting around.

"Yugi, we'll go to your house first since it's the nearest!"

Yugi, who was sitting right next to the driving Anzu, was quite surprised, but nodded as he looked at Seto. He hoped his grandpa was alright...

"You heard that too, mutt?"

"Yea, and don't call me mutt! You freak!"

Not only Seto found it a bit awkward that the road to the Game Shop was completely free. Not that the bare fact wasn't a nice alternative to what they had feared until now. It was way too early to breathe deeply. Not with the masses in front of the small, colorful house.

Jou and Hanasaki already wanted to get out of the tank, but were stopped from Seto.

"We need to get away as fastly as possible, stay inside. I'll take care of them."

"But how?! There's at least fifty of them!"

"Just stay inside!"

He stood up and stuffed his hand into the right right side pocket near to his knee. They knew what he held in his hands as soon as he ripped something away with his teeth, and threw it in the middle of the group. A few of them already noticed him and the others, but Seto made short process with shooting them right in the head. Now that he launched the hand grenade, there was no need to talk about noise anymore.

While he kicked the door open and yelled at the terrorized Mr. Muto to come with him, Yugi and the others were already shooting the ghouls that were attracted by the explosion, and getting nearer, but most of all, more.

Sugoroku managed to jump into the car in time, before there were too much of them.

"Yugi! I'm so glad you're alive! Anzu, You're also there! Honda, Miho! Where is Jou?"

"Calm down, grandpa, he's driving the tank with Hanasaki. We're going to get some people before going back to Kaiba's mansion, where everyone else is hiding."

Even if Seto got him out of the living trap he found himself in, Sugoroku wasn't really impressed by the fact that the young CEO was with them. He slightly leaned forward from the backseat in order to talk to his grandson and Anzu, so that no one else would hear what he had on his mind.

"Yugi, I'm not sure if it is a good idea to stay with Kaiba..."

They looked at the blue eyed teen, who was scanning every little inch of the streets and the buildings around them, with his rifle ready to shoot at any time..

"It's thanks to his fast reaction that we're still alive. Oterwise we would have died like everyone else. It's okay, really."

"If You say so, Yugi. I still have a bad feeling about this."

"Kaiba, Hanasaki's home is the nearest now."

Seto only nodded and repeated the instructions for Jou and Hanasaki. Second one inhaled and exhaled loudly. What would he do without his parents? They were the only humans in his life that loved, and understood his shy nature.

They decided to take a small detour to their target. The streets they were riding on were slowly filling with the creeps. It was the result of the detonation that made them crawl out of their holes. Luckily, the tank managed to run them over, leaving a disgusting pool of blood and mashed bodies.

This time, they decided to enter the house together, since it was too dangerous to wait on the outside.

"Hanasaki, where are your parents usually?"

"In the living room, Jou."

Wherever they walked through, all they saw was a giant mess. Papers, bills, pencils, chairs and other stuff was lying on the floor, building a mess that clearly told them something bad happened in here. There was no time left to speculate if there were still living people or not. Jou, who was walking in front of the group was surprised by a person they knew as a good father...Except that he didn't really look like he was alive anymore. There was many skin missing on his neck and his cheek, revealing his teeth and facial structure.

"FATHER!"

Of course, completely shocked by his fathers condition, Hanasaki stormed forward to grab his hand, but before he was able to do so, Seto pushed him back, in order to prevent him from killing himself. Jou made short process by smashing the poor guys head.

"What did you do?! You killed my father! We could have helped him!"

"There was nothing left to do, and You know that! We-"

Jou was interrupted by a loud moan, coming from the same direction. This time they had to look down to see what was threating their lives this time.

Even if they already saw quite a bit amount of moving corpses, it didn't mean that it didn't require some getting used to...

It was Hanasakis mother, whose lower part of her body was completely missing. Her innards were laying on the floor, covered in fresh blood.

"Mom..." The boy's voice was weak and demotivated. He got on his knees and took her hand in his. She roughly pulled him towards herself and was about to bite his hand off as her head was suddenly crushed by a heavy boot.

"You bastard!"

Driven by his rage towards the man who just crushed his mother's head, the smaller one shot up and punched Seto in the stomach. He would rather have punched him in the face, but the guy was just too damn tall. He wanted to punch the brunette again as his fist got caught by his target.

"She was already dead, you shrimp! We need to go!"

Seto turned his head towards the two zombies who probably heard the screaming and were now entering the house by climbing through the broken window.

"I'm not going to let my parents alone! I'd rather die!"

"Well then, have a nice day." He started walking fastly towards the main entrance, already expecting what was going to come.

"Kaiba!"

"We don't have the fucking time, they're dead and there's nothing we can do about it. If he wants to stay in here, I'm not going to stop him."

They all shot accusing glares at him, but they knew he was right. Jou made short process with his friend as he just grabbed him by his waist, and dragged him out of his now ex-home. He stopped protesting as soon as he had to enter the tank.

"Yugi, where to now?"

"Miho's."

Even though the ride was rather short, it didn't mean that there was less tension between the teens.

"Yugi, I'm very skeptical about Kaiba. He could care less if someone of us dies or not."

"I know, but we need to continue..."

Miho's house was soon reached, and it seemed that there were no dead around to pester them. The young girl jumped off the car, hastly opened the door, and stumbled into the entrance hall. She obviously met her...

"Waaaaah!"

"Miho!"

Honda ran into the house to help her, but it seemed that it was too late. As soon as the others reached them, they saw Miho's mother fall on her back, and Honda holding the girl in his arms. Her neck was bleeding badly, and it seems that the shock was getting the upper hand. Miho was only shaking, and looking at Honda, who desperately tried to make her talk to him. There was no use, she was already dead. Ten seconds later she closed her eyes and stopped breathing. Honda started shaking her so that she would wake up. And she really did wake up-Just not as he expected.

In a matter of seconds, she had his hand, that originally cupped her cheek, tightly between her teeth. He cried out in pain and tried to free himself with Yugi's, Jou's and Sugoroku's help, but there was no use.

Seto walked behind Miho, grabbed her by the hair and ripped her away from Honda's hand. As usual, he made short process by jerking his telescopic truncheon open, and smashing it down on her head until she didn't move anymore. Her gun was discretely taken by him. He didn't want to waste any precious ammo and guns.

Honda was already rolling himself on the floor while holding his hurting hand, while Jou ripped some material from his shirt and fastened it there.

"He's dead, there's nothing You can do about it."

"Shut up, Kaiba, it's just his hand, ok?"

"He's infected. As soon as he's dead he'll kill you too, Mutt."

"This isn't a zombie movie!"

"He isn't coming with us, cheerleader."

"Kaiba, he needs help, he IS coming with us. We could disinfect the wound!"

Suguroku tried to talk with autority, but the present scene and Seto's intimidating person wouldn't really allow him to do so.

As if to prove Seto's point, Honda started spitting a lot of blood and grabbing his stomach. Seto couldn't believe the ignorance of the mutt and his group or nerds. The guy was dying, and all they were doing was to scream around and to cry patheticly. They could at least free him from his pain and avoid a painful and cruel death.

It took him two minutes to shut his eyes, and to fall into his friends arms.

"Get the hell away from him!"

The group jumped away from Honda, not wanting to be shot by Seto who was aiming at the soon-to-be zombie's head.

Seto was right with his assumption, a loud moan made them realize that gruesome fact. A loud shot rang through the air, ending the drama-for now.

Logically, the tears started to flow as Honda's friends stared at his dead body, not being able to believe what they saw. They lost three friends in less than two hours. Three friends!

"Take his gun, we should go."

That was the point where the very sympathetic Anzu couldn't take the attitude he was giving them anymore. How could he just watch people die, and not give a crap about it? He didn't need to be friends with them, or even like them. But why didn't he even try to look sad? Didn't he see their desperation?!

"Are You serious? You just saw two humans DIE in front of You! How can You be so heartless?!"

"I just don't care, Mazaki."

The words that came out of his mouth were enough to prove his cold and cruel personality. Not to mention the ever indifferent and bored look.

"Would you also react that way if something happened to Mokuba?"

"Nothing will happen to Mokuba."

"You could never kn-"

"Nothing. Will. Happen. To. My. Brother. Is that clear, Mazaki?"

"...This is not the time to bite each others heads off. We must go."

The group knew Sugoroku was right. Even though Seto's words were still echoing in their heads, they needed to act knew how many of these things were already outside, waiting for them to come out and to present themselves as a delicious meal?

Seto was the first to step out of the house. He had enough of the whiny little group of kids who still thought they could save the world with their pathetic friendship speeches. It was time to wake up. Seriously.

No interruption happened as they drove towards their next target; The lawyer's office in which Jou's and Shizuka's mom worked in. This rescue would probably turn out to be one of the most dangerous ones, and Seto didn't really feel the need to force into his head that he was risking his life for their familys. He had his brother to take care of, and for that he needed to be alive.

_'We need the cars, and no matter how much I despise them, survival in a group is an advantage.'_

Once again, they climbed out of the vehicles, in order to walk towards the rather large building. It wasn't as tall and as impressing as Kaiba Corp, but nevertheless, it could be able to represent quite a challenge when it came to find a single person in it. Which was probable. Hopefully it wouldn't be as full as KC HQ...

"Do you know in which part of the building she worked in?"

Seto was standing before the back door, preparing himself for the upcoming fight.

"She was always in the right wing, on the first floor. I don't know if she still is in there, though..."

"Ok. You'll lead us there. Try to keep it as quiet as possible."

Jou was surprised by the calm tone in his voice. He sounded as if he was already planning their mission in his head!

As soon as he was done with refilling his ammo, Seto offered Sugoroku a gun. It was the one he originally gave to Miho...The gun that belonged to Honda was now in Jou's hands.

"Kaiba, I don't believe in violence."

Seto smiled maliciously before he put the gun into his own holster. What an ignorant old fool...Probably still belived that no human being had the right to hurt another one. Only people who never suffered under another person's hand could possibly think like that. He probably never went through the massive humiliation Seto had to go through. It was a walk through a burning hell, and the path he was forced to walk on, was build by a sadistic tormentor. Seto didn't believe in what the midget's grandfather believed. If someone would hit you on the right cheek, would you hold out the left one? If someone would threaten to kill your child, would you let him do so, only to hold on to your ridiculous ideology? Would you forgive the rapist that broke your daughter? This was all an illusion, an illusion that many people struggled to believe in. They struggled to make others believe they were nothing but the good and kind...Long story short; Pure hypocrisy.

"You should get used to it, the party's not over yet..." Seto would not hold out the other cheek, he did once, in order to survive, but things have changed.

He offered them a malicious grin before opening the door. Jou hastly walked past him, to start looking for his mother.

_'That bastard just loves stamping on our fears...He's lucky I'm only focussing on finding my mother...'_

Of course it was an advantage to Seto. Jou was walking in the front, preventing him from being a living target. If they got attacked, it would hit the mutt first. He could live with that, even if it meant he wasn't the leading one.

"She has to be somewhere, here's her office."

Jou stopped before the desk his mom used to work on. The working place's content was scattered on the floor, along with a picture of his mom, Shizuka, and Jou. It was shot in better times.

"She's not here, maybe she's hiding somewhere?" Jou took the picture out of it's broken frame, and put it into his jacket's pocket.

Seto rolled his eyes. How were they supposed to know? It was very unlikely that she was still alive, but the group of nerds, and the pacifist old Muto would cause a scene if he said what he thought.

"I'll try to call her, maybe she'll answer this time."

This time Seto couldn't hold back a heavy sigh, giving Jou the opportunity he was waiting for.

"What's your damn problem, Kaiba?!"

Again the smug grin and the bored face. Jou was short tempered, that was a fact they all knew. But they also knew he was trying to fight against the urge to directly throw his fist at anyone who would look at him in a way that didn't please him. They knew that Seto fought against his general boredom at school, and well, Jou was so easy to provoke.

"I'm just a bit bored. If I'd state the obvious you would cause another hysterical scene, that's what we don't need right now."

"Stop grinning like that!"

"Make me-" Jou didn't need to hear that twice. With all the force he had, he grabbed Seto by the thin material of his turtleneck, and pushed him to the wall, holding him there.

"Aw, why the violence?" Sugoroku knew the message was dedicated to him. The young man was teasing him to no end, and he was obviously enjoying it.

"You don't deserve anything else, only because your parents aren't living anymore, and your stepfather let you study a bit more than usually, you're going all boo-hoo!.You have everything you want, yet you're such a fuckin' asshole!"

In the meantime Anzu couldn't help but looking at the reason for Jou's anger. He looked so distracted, almost...happy to know he was pissing the blonde off. As if he needed the trouble and the action. He enjoyed the general superiority he had towards others.

While she was thinking about how and why Seto's actions were that twisted, she observed him. That's were she noticed something was wrong with his neck. By the way Jou was holding his pull-over, she was able to see his neck for the first time in her life. She couldn't quite recognize what he had there. Anzu slightly jumped at the coldness in his eyes, as she finally noticed he was looking at her. It sent a shiver down her spine, but before she could come down from it, she had to deal with the sight of her best friend getting a knee between his legs. Jou instantly doubled over and grabbed his family jewels.

"And now you can stand up, and try to find your mother between them."

Seto grabbed Jou at the back of his school-jacket, and pulled him up to show him the group of zombies making their way to them-en masse.

He took his two guns in his hands, and turned around to Sugoroku.

"Enjoy the show."

One shot after the other fell, as Yugi, Jou, Anzu, and Seto defended themselves from the masses. It seemed that the aggressors never got to get out of the building, and to seek new victims out on the streets.

At some point, Jou suddenly screamed and started to run away. The others knew nothing better but to follow him.

Seto, with his longer legs, managed to run faster than the others. He felt like he was emprisoned in an ego shooter game as he occasionally shot down some ghouls who suddenly came from a few corners. He had to admit to himself; This felt rather...good.

The back door to the building was kicked open, and closed as soon as the last person ran out of the dangerous building.

"Is everyone okay?! Ryu? Where's Ryu?"

"I don't know, Jou!"

"Maybe he's still in there?" Hanasaki's words hit quite a spot. Of course, the desperation had to take over again.

"We need to open the door!"

"And let them get ouside to kill us? What are you, old fool? Dumb?"

"Hey, don't talk to Mr. Muto like that, Kaiba!"

"Okay, Miss Friendship. How the hell do You think could he have survived? He was right behind us, and they were behind him! Face it, he's dead. Even if we would try to get him out of there, I don't feel like driving around with half the ammunition we have right now just because you felt like saving an already dead guy!"

As if to put an end to Seto's sentence, the thin metallic door broke down. It took them two long seconds to realize what was happening.

Seto immediately climbed on top of the tank, and prepared the AK-47 he had on his upper body the whole time. He covered Anzu's, Yugi's, Sugoroku's, Hanasaki's and Jou's backs while they got into the vehicles, and started them. He saw Ryu under his bullets victims, and smirked; he was right.

After five minutes of non-stop riding, they finally reached their last destination. Jou's 'home'. Shizuka had pestered him about getting their father, because he was a family member after all...The girl was just too naive.

Jou led them up the stairs, and opened the door with his keys, secretely hoping his dad wouldn't be in there. And if he was, then he'd better be dead. Jou got disappointed.

"Where were you? You good for nothing piece of shit!"

The group was greeted by the smeel of cheap beer, booze, marijuana, and piss...

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**_You can't imagine how honored I feel each time someone adds this story to their favourites! And each review is another reason for me to keep updating! Let me know what you expect from this plot, share the ideas you think would fit!_**

**_Once again, thank you!_**

**_-Emi;)_**


	8. Chapter 8

**_Welcome to chapter 8! I'm sorry for those who have waited, but work's been a killer lately, and insomnia doesn't really help..._**

**_I had the honor to meet and greet Mr. Marilyn Manson himself after watching his, and Rob Zombie's amazing shows. The man is brilliant, and cares about his fans on top of that. I got the chance to tell him how important his influence was to me and my life. I'm still touched by this meeting, and I don't think my stomach's going to calm down any time soon ;)_**

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**Chapter 8: Ideas On Morality?!**

"We need to go, come on, dad."

The obviously drunken man took quite some time to even be able to stand up. The appartment looked like a museum for empty bottles which once contained all sorts of hard alcohol. There were plates with food leftovers, some of them looked like they became a part of the dirty furniture.

The smell...The smell was just pungent. Disgusting. Fitting to the scene.

Seto pinched the bridge of his nose, fighting against the urge to vomit. That was a new experience to him and his stomach, even if he had to face hundreds of corpses until now.

"You're able to blow peoples brains away, but almost throw up because of this?"

"I can't help it, Mazaki..."

"Wow, isn't that the filthy rich Kaiba boy?"

With a bottle of beer in his right hand, Jou's father started stumbling towards Seto's direction.

"Jonouchi, you didn't tell me you had such wealthy friends! We could have paid all our depts!"

Seto had to refrain himself from laughing as he heard what the fool just spat.

"What's so funny? You're a billionaire, show some solidarity, know what I mean?"

"I'll pay you a shower, how about that?"

"Be careful with what you say, I have looots of connections, who would love to meet you..."

Seto knew nothing better but to smirk at the smaller man. Did he not realize that his so called 'connections' were probably already dead? Not to mention the influence he had with his bare name...

"I'm sure."

Seto still had the cruel and malicious grin on his face, which still stayed as he opened the door and stepped outside. By the way he spit into his hand, to wipe it on his pants afterwards, clearly told them to be careful with what was said.

The fool even had difficulies with simply climbing into the Humvee. At first he had wanted to drive the tank, but decided to get into the car, since there were a few...complications strolling towards them.

The ride would have been quite calm, except of a few encounters, but the annoying raw voice of Jous father was hard to ignore. He kept complaining about them not stopping so that he could drive the tank. Like a child that absolutely needed to have something, as if it was fundamental to have alcohol in the house to make time pass faster.

As they reached the gate to the mansion, Seto had to jump down and knock off a few lone figures so that Mokuba could let them pass.

"Seto!"

The smaller Kaiba ran towards Seto, who had to get down on his knees so that his brother would be able to embrace him. It was a really cute picture of the two.

The moment was interrupted by a loud burp coming from the car. As if the mansion was his own, he casually strolled towards the main hall, where he placed his hands on his hips, and sighed loudly.

"That's how I should be living! Hah, this isn't fair, you young brat gets a company shoved up his ass. Daddy's dead and you earned everything!"

While the man kept talking about how the world wasn't fair, that Seto and Mokuba were just lucky, and that solely corruption kept Kaiba Corp going, Seto turned around to Isono.

"That guy isn't getting any weapon at all."

"Of course." Isono nodded. He knew his boss would say something alike sometime. He was absolutely right; It would be pure neglicence to give that guy a rifle.

"Hey, rich boy!"

As soon as Seto turned around to look at the bad smelling origin of the noise, he was greeted with a dirty fist. The punch caused him to loose his balance, and to hit the floor.

"Who the hell do you think you are?! I have dealt with weapons before you were even born! If someone should decide who gets weapons or not, it should be ME!"

Seto was up in no time. What an embarrassment. He shouldn't have turned his back on that snake. He got provoked in the most primitive way by being pushed on the chest after getting on his feet again.

"What do you want to do now, huh?!"

All of them were watching the whole display with a very foul feeling in the stomach. This didn't look like a peaceful ending. Not at all. Seto only shrugged innocently at the question that was thrown at him.

"Break your knee." That was the answer.

Before any consequent reaction could follow, Jou's dad was forcefully pushed down. He swore as he fell on the floor and wasn't able to get up again.

That lazyness allowed Seto to fastly put his left foot in front of his enemy's left ankle, and to forcefully kick into the right side of the kneecap. Said one gave an ugly cracking sound as it broke, and it was followed by a loud scream that could have made glass shatter.

Seto looked satisfied as he continued to humiliate the man by spitting the blood that formed inside his own mouth on his face.

Shizuka, who was already by her father as he got his knee crushed, was crying, and looked pretty angry.

"Why did you do that? You BASTARD!"

The older Kaiba visibly amused the reaction he got by the smaller girl. A smooth grin came with the calm sounding answer.

"Because I felt like it."

The only reason why Jou, Yugi, Anzu didn't say anything was because they silently thanked Kaiba for taking the ever rude man down. Sure, every group had their black sheep, but they preferred to let Kaiba be the one. He was at least acceptable, worked with them, and wouldn't create a dictatorship within their group. Death would not be avoidable if that should ever happen.

"Kaiba, that was not necessary! How is he supposed to flee if these things come in here?"

Seto scratched the back of his head with the handle of his gun while shrugging.

"Not at all. Isono, the handcuffs."

"No! No handcuffs, he also has the right to live!"

"I don't think so, old fool. An abusive father doesn't have any rights."

A shiver went down Jou's spine as he caught what Kaiba said. How could he have known? Only his friends and Sugoroku knew about that, but they certainly never would have told Kaiba of all people!

Sugoroku sighed heavily, giving up.

"It's your conscience. I hope it won't eat you from the inside."

"How caring. I assure you that won't be the case. In fact I could drop him outside the gates and let him be the zombie's problem."

"NO!"

Shizuka was up on her feet, pointing her gun at him. She scowled herself for not thinking about that earlier.

"Aw, how dramatic..." He rolled his blue eyes and didn't even make the effort to lift his own gun.

"Sh-Shizuka, give daddy the gun."

The pain he felt was more than audible by the way he talked. There was no denying that a new opportunity was given to him, and that his too naive youngest daugher would effectively do everything for him.

Since Seto never made the effort to aim at her, she slowly lowered her gun, which almost reached her dad's hand.

PANG!

And there went a thumb. Shizuka had looked away from Seto to look down, giving him the perfect opportunity to disarm them. The gun immediately fell to the floor, never reaching Jou's father's outstreched hand.

She instandly cried out and fell on her butt while she and everyone else watched the blood flowing. The man held his hand cried and swore like he always did, except that there was a reason to now.

Isono continued with the handcuffs and took the man's non injured hand to tie him at the banister of the large stairs.

"Do you really think it's necessary to tie him down? He can't even walk!"

Sugoroku could not believe how his grandson and his friends were able to tolerate such an inhuman behaviour.

This wasn't even happening for a single day, and they were already ignoring the most important human rights!

"He wouldn't hesiate to kill you too. Anyway, you have nothing to say in that matter."

As Seto turned away, he was starting to doubt if it was a good idea to give them weapons. What had he been thinking?

_'Let's see, the mutt's alright, even if he's annoying, he won't be a danger. But his sister... Mazaki-Is also against violence, so no. The old Muto-He pratically invented pacifism, so that should be clear. Hanasaki-Is too shy. And Yugi isn't a danger. They never went through such a situation though, I need to be careful. Isono is also here, so I won't be alone if they start to threaten our lives, which I really doubt.'_

"Isono-"

"Yes, master Kaiba?"

The bodyguard started walking next to his boss, who was walking towards the kitchen's storage room.

"You can call me by the first name, it doesn't bother me. I'm a bit worried about all of them carrying a gun around. I'd be glad if you could collect them, and keep them in the weapon room. Our security is constantly threatened."

"Very well. I already noticed this could take a bad end."

Isono already wanted to go back to the living room where he assumed everyone was.

"Wait, we first need to talk about water and food. We don't have enough for all of us, so we need to go out again."

Isono only nodded as they walked back to where everyone else was. Seto could tell by the way they looked at him, that they didn't know how to behave in his presence.

"There's not enough food for all of us."

He decided to confront them directly. There was no need to explain himself for what he did five minutes before, they would have to live with the incapability to understand that nothing was like before.

"I'm coming with you."

Yugi walked towards Seto, only to stand still by his side.

"Yugi, stay here, I don't want you to get killed!"

"Grandpa, I need to go. Otherwise I won't be able to stop thinking about the friends we lost in only a single day. Please understand that."

Before Sugoroku could say anything, Jou and Anzu stepped forward to demonstrate their loyality towards their smaller friend. Seto had to refrain his urge to roll his eyes. This was so damn cheesy...


	9. 9 The Isolation Begins

**_Thank you very much, to those who reviewed the last chapter!_**

**_I'm trying to build Seto's chara on the basics of the trauma he suffered. That means I'm going to join the symptoms including some side effects (like mood swings, tired but unable to sleep...). I think they ignored that during the manga/anime. Ah well, too busy with card games I guess._**

**_I don't know, I started liking the song 'Gangnam Style', and since I saw the video, I can't stop imagining Seto doin' the horse dance *lol*_**

* * *

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-gi-oh! I'm not gaining any profits by posting this! I just own the plot.**_

**Chapter 9: The Isolation Begins**

The ride to the next market was surprisingly quiet, and the roads chaotic, but empty. Not much used, and not really important, it was just useful for the inhabitants of the quite luxurious houses on each sides of it.

This time, it was Seto who was driving one of the two Humvees, Jou was responsible for the other one.

"I can't believe you gave Mokuba a gun!"

Oh yes, Anzu had decided to ride with him, only to pester him about handing Mokuba a gun, and to tell Isono to give the instructions.

"The mutt's sister's there, I don't feel like letting him unable to defend himself while I'm not near him."

"But there are other people in the mansion who look out for him. He's just a child, and you're being irresponsible."

"Mokuba knows when to use it or not, now will you shut it?"

"You have no right to tell me to shut up!"

"Please-shut it. Better?"

The death glare she gave him was a very impressing concurrence to his.

"Thanks." He couldn't help the smirk. Her cheeks were already red from being pissed at him.

"Just drive!"

Seto chuckled as he fully concentrated on the road again, since he already saw the quite large shop he and Mokuba sometimes got some ingredients to cook something at home. Since the boy almost burned the kitchen down about a year ago, Seto had started to teach him the basics of cooking.

He stopped the car and opened his door, Jou, Yugi and Anzu did the same.

"Stay behind me."

Anzu was glad Seto slightly pushed her behind himself. She didn't really know, but she felt like she could get hysterical in any moment.

"The door can't be opened, I think someone's inside."

Jou tried to open the door once again, but failed another time.

"I hope it doesn't attract them, we have no other choice."

Seto took a look around before telling Jou what he was about to do. They decided not to risk anything and to kick the glass door together. It wasn't just ordinary glass, so it took them quite a few attempts to break it open. The hole that was created by them allowed Seto to unlock the heavy looking door from the inside.

"Hey! Who's there?!"

Seto took the AK-47, and fastly positioned himself to be ready to shoot any moment.

"Wrong question, get out of here!"

"Forget it, we are armed!"

"If you take a look at me, you'll realize that whatever you have is not enough."

"Go away, asshole! This is our place!"

"Not anymore."

It sounded as if there were three persons. Quite young, maybe 15-16 years old. One of them stood up, equiped with a huge, threatening butcher knife. The guy himself started to swear, and to tell Seto, Yugi, Anzu and Jou to get the guns down, and not to take it that seriously, but there was no use. Seto knew there were still a few of them, waiting for the perfect opportunity to attack him, and his own group.

"I repeat; Get out of here, every single one."

"We should give up, Kenny, they're armed to the teeth."

Another one stood up, and slowly walked towards them while holding his arms up.

"Take his example; One last warning, or I'll kill all of you."

"Hey, you're Seto freakin' Kaiba, aren't you?!"

"Maybe."

A black haired teen came out of his hiding spot, right behind the instand noodles. He looked really angry, and somehow determined to hurt Seto, it didn't matter in what kind of way.

"I have some unsolved business with ya!"

"I don't have any unsolved business, especially not with tramps."

That sentence definetly hit a nerve.

"Why do you think do I look like a tramp, huh? You fired my dad, since then we have no money at all!"

"Normally I don't fire any people that simply, only when I notice that they're useless. Your father molested quite a few women in the office, and that's something I don't tolerate." Of course Seto remembered. The boy had his father's face.

"Bullshit! My dad loved my mother, he would never have done something like that!"

"You obviously don't really know him. I guess that's my last word. Get out."

"You don't have the guts to shoot me, I know that."

Seto was in a real dilemma. Of course he had the courage to kill the guy, that was never a question. He had already taken a life as killing was still a severe crime. But the negative part of this decision would be; they would attract by far more enemies than they wanted. The time they originally had to take whatever they needed in order to survive would shrink dramatically.

Seto pointed the rifle at the boy's crotch, and concentrated himself to aim perfectly.

"WaitwaitwaitWAIT! Stop this, both of You! We're making too much noise!"

"Ly~yn, I'm scared..."Suddenly, all of them heard a high pitched voice, coming from behind 'Lynn's' legs. The girl was something between 5-7 years old, had black hair that reached her shoulders, and dark green eyes. She was dressed in her school uniform that was partially covered in blood, which explained why she looked so drained.

"Shut up!"

Seto's patience was at its limits. He was heartless towards others, but he couldn't stand to see people maltreating children who were helpless and innocent to what was happening.

"You, what's your name?" His voice was now way friendlier than before, he didn't want to scare her.

"My name?" The girl pointed at herself, while giving Seto a questioning look.

"Yes, you." She hesitated a bit, while Lynn, Kenny and the others were debating with themselves if it was a good idea to let her talk with the man who was threatening them with a rifle.

"I'm Michelle." She smiled at him, while slightly coming out of the hiding spot.

Seto lowered the AK-47 and nodded at Anzu. She understood what he wanted and also lowered her gun. Jou and Yugi were still observing what the others were doing, just in case they were planning to use their short inattentiveness.

"Michelle, that's Anzu."

Seto got down on his knees, to be on eye's level with her. He knew what he planned on doing with the shameless group of idiots, and Michelle definetly shouldn't stay with them since they didn't even want her in the first place.

"Come here, Michelle, we're going to his home afterwards. Does that sound good?-"

Anzu was inteerupted by Lynn, who did not like the sudden attention that little brat got.

"STOP THIS! Everyone, shut three, get the fuck out of here, we were here first! And if You want to take that brat with You, then so be it, but this is our place, and all that's in there is ours!"

Of course Michelle knew she was not wanted here. Her now dead sister Mayu, had once friends with Lynn, but that didn't mean the little girl was welcomed. She was never allowed to enter her sister's bedroom when they were there, talking about boys at school, make-up or whatever else.

It's understandable that it didn't take much time to decide what to do. Her feet fastly carried her to the sympathic looking Anzu, who hid her behind herself as soon as she could.

Seto knew it was no use to talk with these kids, so he gave Hanasaki his rifle, and looked over at Jou.

"We don't need any guns to make them get out of here..."

Jou seemed to like the idea, so he gave Yugi his own gun, and started walking towards the nervous opponents.

Jou and Seto's movements were fast, calculated and harsh as they disarmed, and showed their enemies where the doors were. Quick, but devastating blows were to be given. It was also a fight against the time after all.

"You can't just thow us out! We're going to die out here!"

"Not my business." Seto pushed them out and threatened them by aiming at them with a simple handgun.

"Dude-"

"Five seconds left!"

"Are ou serious?!"

"Lynn, that guy's fucked up, let's go!"

They started to run as fast as they could, in order to avoid the bullets that would surely follow.

"We should start, Yugi, can you keep a look at the doors?"

"Sure, Jou."

Yugi positioned himself at the best place to keep a good eye at the surroundings outside the small super market, while Anzu, Seto and Jou got themselves shopping trolleys. They started walking through the partially chaotic corridors, and looked out for the things they would need. They mostly took canned food, simply because those were durable. They couldn't affrod to get out of their hiding spot that often. It would always represent a danger for their lives, so, an impeccable preparation was one of the conditions to stay in the mansion as long as possible.

"Hey, mutt! Dog food's over here!"

"Fuck you, Kaiba!"

Seto chuckled slightly as he continued to look out for the things that would be needed, as suddenly something hit him on the left cheek. He swore loudly and looked down at his feet, to see what hit him. A tampon package. He looked up, and saw Anzu grinning at him.

"Serves you right, jerk."

"I'm pretty sure you could use them now..."

"That's-None of your concern!"

Again Seto chuckled. She was so easy to tease.

They continued to collect until there wasnt any space in both Humvees. The mission was successfully accomplished until now, only the safe homecoming had yet to be reached. The streets started becoming noisy. As they were occupied with filling the cars in order to drive as soon as possible, Yugi started shooting at the masses of undead people in front of them. Seto took the rifle he took with him from his back and started using the grenade launcher. The little group that was thrown out from the small market by them were now with their new 'friends'. This time they weren't looking for a place to hide...

Michelle quickly got into the back seat, to avoid to havo to look at the corpses who moved as if they were having a total body spasm. Now she knew why her parents kept forbidding her to watch horror movies as she told them she would like to see one. Though she'd rather watch the worst horror movie on this planet if it would make this become a really bad nightmare.

As the masses in front of them shrinked to a minimum, they already thought it was over. The disappointment should come around the corner of a rather large building.

Fortunately, they managed to drive away just in time.

"Are we going to your home, Seto?"

Seto slightly flinched at his first name as he held the steering wheel with the right, and drank from his water bottle with the left. No one except of Mokuba called him like that. His last name represented the cold, ruthless, bastard billionaire, who was never to be bothered because of unimportant matters. He decided to tolerate being called like that from Michelle, since he didn't want to be the usual ass to her.

"Yea." He took a short look at the rear view, to check if Yugi and Jou were still behing him, Anzu and Michelle.

"Is there enough space for all of us?" He grinned at that question, the girl probably didn't know who he was, but her innocent questions were quite cute. She was a really strong kid.

"Plenty."

"Do you always answer with just one word."

"Mostly."

Michelle started laughing at his answer, making Anzu wonder why the driving Seto didn't stop her from using his first name.

Fortunately, the gate was free from any parasites, so they were able to open it without a risk. The first one to run towards the cars was Mokuba. He insantly got his arms around his brother's waist, relieved to see his only family left safe and sound.

Yugi, Jou and Anzu were greeted by Sugoroku and Hanasaki while Isono started to open the cars to be able to take the groceries out.

"Eh, master Seto, who is that?"

Isono pointed at Michelle, who still curiously looked out of the window, not daring to come out.

"That's Michelle, we took her with us." Seto continued explaining while opening the door for her.

After a short break, which was more then useful, they started helping each other isolating all windows with the door's wood to fortify them. It was surprising to see Jou and Seto silently working hand in hand for a while. Tough it only lasted until they were done with their work...

* * *

_**I'm pretty sure you all know what reviews are to those who publish. They're candy! And trust me, I love candy, and if it wasn't for the Thai Fighting, I'd have some serious weight problems XD**_

_**I cannot thank you enough! I'm doing my best to keep the tension through every single chapter, and to work with the individual personalities and their developement, while trying not to chain myself to the typical clichées. I worked a lot on the blue prints for the future chapters, and I can tell you, there's no reason to worry about the stuff. There's plenty!**_

_**Greets, and once more, thank you!**_

_**-Emi;)**_


	10. 10 With Security, The Horror's

**_Happy new year to everyone! I hope you're all having a great time!_**

* * *

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-gi-oh! I'm not gaining any profits by posting this! I just own the plot.**_

**Chapter 10: With Security, The Horror's Consequences Come pt.1**

After ensuring their security, the group of survivors took place in the living room, which wasn't completely isolated. They had to see what was happening on the outside after all.

"It's getting dark slowly. We should prepare ourselves for the night, don't you think, Yugi?"

Yugi nooded at Jou, who was sitting tight next to him on the couch. They were all kind of occupied with themselves while time passed terribly slowly. Jou was sitting next to Yugi, who was sitting next to his grandpa. Sugoroku managed to doze off sometime, and was now sleeping.

Michelle was reading a book Mokuba gave to her as she asked him for something she could do against her boredom. Both were sitting next to each other, Seto placed himself right next to Mokuba. He was playing a well known game with his phone. The battery was no problem due to the portable solar charger (not to misunderstand; he'll charge it during the day). He was doing this very discretely. The tone was off, and from his position, no one could see what he was doing. There was no need to give them the opportunity to start arguing with him about playing a videogame while their situation looked all but relaxed. But what should he do? He was someone who was used to constantly occupy himself, either with things he did, or didn't have to do. Apart of the fact that this game was so damn addicting...

Isono was sitting near the door that led to the stairs, so that he could notice any weird behaviour coming from Shizuka and Jou's dad, who was still tied to the banister. His daughter was sitting next to him, staring at the floor, looking as if she would explode anytime. That girl was a real danger for their group, and it was his duty to keep the Kaiba brothers safe.

The only ones who were just sitting there were Anzu and Hanasaki. No passable discussion topic was found until now. '_We should probably turn the lights off for the night.'_

Seto decided to stop the game. It was a fact, he was a genius, and he was known for sofisticating the gaming systems all over the world, but he just couldn't get past that level. How frustrating...

"As much as I hate to say it-we should stay together."

Of course Jou saw the ideal opportunity to tease the pissed looking Seto.

"Aw, too afraid to sleep without us?"

"I'm more afraid of you trying to hump me when I'm out..."

"Ew, I didn't know you liked me that much, Kaiba!"

"I'm afraid I can't return the feelings."

Seto started to grin as they pratically stood before one another. He sensed that continuing to tease Jou would only lead to a serious fight. He clearly had to admit to himself; He was washed out.

"Stop this, both of you!" Sugoroku stood up, and put himself between them. Seto didn't feel the need to listen to what the older man had to say, so he turned around.

"There are more than plenty guestrooms. Just don't go up by yourself."

It took them thirty minutes to get everything they needed down to the living room. Everything happened hand in hand, while Seto and Mokuba pushed everything aside so that there would be enough space.

"Hey, Mokuba, where are we going to?"

Anzu was following Mokuba and Michelle, who were heading upstairs.

"To my room, Michelle asked me for some clean clothes."

"Ah, that sounds good..." Anzu sighed at the thought of freshly washed clothes. Unfortunately, she only had that ugly stinking school uniform.

"Uh, hey, Mokuba, do you think your brother has some sleeping clothes for me?" Yes, she was desperated, otherwise she would never have said those words to the smaller Kaiba. She could already hear the sarcastic answer she would get from the older one.

_'I guess I'm willing to pay that price.'_

"Sure, Anzu. We'll ask him as soon as we're downstairs again."

The three entered Mokuba's rather chaotic room, and went straight for his cupboard.

"What about that one?"

"I'm not a boy, Mokuba!"

Michelle was...picky. Very picky. Several minutes passed until she accepted what Mokuba showed her.

"Thank you, Mokuba!"

"You're welcome! Come on, let's go down."

Anzu nodded and looked around to make sure the hallway was safe. Sure, they had isolated any potential entrances, but she preferred to not be taken by surprise. Especially not with Mokuba under her care. Kaiba would chase and blow the life out of her if anything should happen to his little brother.

Everything seemed to be ready for them to get their well deserved sleep, though a certain question was still in Anzu's mind. She saw him casually leaving the lving room, and catched up on him on his way up.

"Hey, Kaiba, we aren't supposed to walk around all alone."

"I prefer to shower alone, Mazaki."

Anzu stopped walking, causing him to do the same.

"That...Is a brilliant idea. Can I take one too?"

He lifted an eyebrow and gave her a weird look. Did she even hear what he said?

"Now that's a new one."

"Not with you! In a guest bathroom."

Seto chuckled and continued to walk towards his own room. He pointed at the door at the end of the hallway. He was just about to close the door behind himself as she called him again.

"What is it?"

"Do you have some spare clothes?"

Seto only nodded, not wanting to talk any more than necessary.

* * *

"Anzu, you're swimming in it!"

"Guys, stop laughing at me, it's just for the night!"

Seto had given her the clothes as soon as he stepped out and unconsciously made her blush. Even to Anzu, there was no denying that the CEO was hot, and now the additional wet hair...

Almost all of them were sitting on the mattresses on the floor, getting ready to definetly lay down. Seto was sitting on the sofa that was placed next to the window, looking outside, seemingly deep in thoughts. Mokuba and Michelle were already deep asleep. No one could blame them, after that freak of a day...

Even if he could, Seto wouldn't want to sleep. Too many thoughts were passing through his head and torturing him and his inability to find answers.

_'I did all that was necessary to ensure Mokuba a good life, with all possible opportunities. All of Gozaburo's beatings, his sadistic ways of letting his frustrations out on me. I nearly gave myself up. I almost lost the will to live, and to fight back. Now we had everything, until today. Was that all for nothing? I try to, but I can't control all the things that happen to us, I can only make sure to lead them to the right way. If something happens to Mokuba, I have no reason to live anymore. There is nothing on this earth that could convince me otherwise, not even Rachel."_

Seto was difting down with his negative thoughts, getting more depressive than he already was. As Mokuba started mumbling and tossing around in his sleep, he hastly stood up and sat down by his brother's side.

"Mokuba, wake up."

He slightly shook the boy to wake him up.

"Shit. Mokuba, hey, wake up!"

There, finally, he opened his eyes and instantly buried his face in Seto's shirt as he realized who was holding him. How he hated to see Mokuba like that. His stomach started to ache from all the anger and the desperation he had in himself. He plainly wanted his brother to be alright! What was wrong with that simple wish?!

"Can I help you?"

Seto looked up, only to meet Anzu's concerned glance. She was sitting up, ready to stand up whenever he asked her to.

"No..." He looked down on himself, and laid the boy down again. "He's asleep."

"What about you?"

Seto only shook his head no, and continued to let his thoughts wander. Anzu noticed it made no sense at all to try to talk to him, so she took a last look at Mokuba, and laid down again.

* * *

The next morning started rather early in comparison to their past standards. Sometime during the night, Seto had walked over to the radio, put the earphones on, and tried to find any signals that would lead them to a non-infected place. Just as he thought; nothing.

Now he was lazily laying on the same couch he sat on during the night. He was a bit tired, yes. But he didn't want to sleep in front of the others who were just about to wake up. There was no need to present himself vulnerable in front of them.

Hey, Kaiba, what about the military? Can they help us?"

"No, they won't."

"What? Why not?"

"They lost their most important financial source because of me. Trust me, they won't."

"Shit."

"We should watch TV and listen to the radio. Maybe they'll announce a safe zone."

Seto nodded at Isono, who turned the flat screen television at the end of the room on. What they saw was only disapponting, and not really motivating. Policemen were trying to keep hysterical people calm, to regulate the traffic, and to arrest the infected ones.

"No one's coming."

"Oh stop being that pessimistic!"

Anzu furiously turned around to give Seto an angry look. He simply frowned at her.

"There are 127 million humans in Japan, I'm just being realistic."

A silent minute followed. What were they supposed to say? It was the sad truth.

"Could you maybe-teach us how to shoot?"

Seto lifted his left eyebrow, and gave Hanasaki a weird look. He? Asking him to teach them how to shoot?

Seto shrugged. "Why not, all of you could use an introduction course."

"Well, I don't."

Sugoroku was still not feeling well with so many weapons around him.

"Your thing."

* * *

"You should lay down like that, it's the most compfortable position. Sharp shooters often remain like that for hours, just to hit a single target. That's not our case. Since there's less than 300 meters between us and these things, the air is not relevant."

"Why should the air be relevant?" Jou asked.

"Because it could influence the bullet's flying direction. You should have a quiet hand, and don't wait too long before shooting. A headshot is option number one, otherwise it would be ammo waste. Hanasaki, try it out."

Seto stood up and Hanasaki instantly took his place, and followed the given instructions. It turned out that he was a true talent, and that Seto had an impressive amount of patience. They went on like that until the evening. The most impressive fact was that Jou and Seto were able to talk in a respectful tone with each other.

This night was similar to the last one. Mokuba was having problems with sleeping without gruesome nightmares. Seto once took him out of bed and placed him in the kitchen to be able to calm him down. It took the older brother almost an hour to make him stop shivering.

The next morning was not better to the older brother.

"Kaiba, free my dad, he's suffering! He's feeling sick without something to drink!"

"There's water, he doesn't need anything else."

"Let him go!"

"Nope."

"You'll regret it!"

"Oh I'm sure..."

The sarcasm wasn't to be overheard. Shizuka furiously stomped away, muttering some insults, and only making him chuckle maliciously.

"Seto?"

"Hm?"

Michelle grabbed his arm and looked up at him.

"I don't like her, she scares me."

"Don't be, she won't do anything."

"Kaiba, I wouldn't even have saved him, it was her idea."

Jou, Yugi, Anzu, and Hanasaki were sitting on the opposite couch. It sounded almost as if Jou wanted to apologize for his sister making their troubles bigger than they already were.

"I know, I don't think he'll represent a problem anymore, though I'm not sure about that brat."

"Jou, we should give her some time."

"Yugi, she totally changed, she's not herself anymore. I don't think she'll get over what she has seen."

"Maybe she only needs you to talk to her, give her some support."

* * *

"They're getting more and more in front of the gate, Kaiba."

"I know. There's not even enough space to drive through the gate."

Jou and Seto were once again on the roof. The boredom was getting unbearable downstairs, so they decided to get up and just to sit there. The sun was not burning hot, but present, and felt good. The walking corpses would probably stink even more in the heat...bon apétit.

"We're trapped in here, aren't we?"

"Hm, not necessarily."

"So, what's the other option?"

"An underground tunnel."

"Really?"

"Really."

Jou followed him downstairs, and helped him with collecting everyone.

"We should think about a fast escape, since the gate is now out of option."

"Master Seto, we still have the undergrounf tunnel."

"I alreaedy thought of that, and I think we should prepare ourselves to be able to flee."

Jou had the same tone in his voice than Seto, while both were walking around and explaining. It seemed like both were in their right element, and pratically born to survive.

"I'd say we should prepare ourselves to get out of here as fastly as possible, just in case."

"Good idea, Yugi." Jou was impressed by his friend, who, he had to admit, looked a bit paranoid.

"Okay, then let's do it."

No time was wasted as they started transporting the most important things they had into the cars. Food, weapons, ammo, clothes, different care items...they thought about everything they would need if they would be forced to get out of the safe place. Everything happened hand in hand, while Shizuka remained where she was. While they worked and walked past her and her dad on the stairs, they got more and more unnerved because of her and her bad attitude. She was still alive, and could at least invest her own energy into their group. Jou was very surprised and a bit depressed. The thoughts that filled his head were all about Shizuka. Ever since all of this started happening. But now...it was just fatiguing and backbreaking to constantly be afraid of what she would think of to make their already miserable life miserable.

It tore him apart that he was even able to think it would be best to get rid of her. Of course he was hoping she would change after some time, but deep inside he knew she was now irreparably insane, and that death would be the final gift to her.

_'No, it's definetly not like that. Shizuka deserves a chance, and I'll take care of her!'_

"Hey, wait!"

Yugi, Anzu and Hanasaki, who were walking in front of him, stopped and turned around.

"What is it, Jou?" Anzu was the most delicate one when it came to Shizuka. She was slowly starting to hate the spoiled girl. Sitting around, cursing the whole world because nothing was going as she wished.

"Have a bit more patience with Shizuka, please..."

Even if it sounded as if they should sacrifice their left arm, the three nodded, and promised Jou to collect themselves a bit. For now.

* * *

_**Thank you for reading, and please remember to review!**_

_**Greety, Emi;)**_


	11. 11 With SecurityPt2

**_Wow, I'm sooo happy about the reviews to the last chapter! Thank you!_**

**_Sinrya Mangafn; Thank you for the many reviews! I'm glad that you like it! You made me *lol* quite a lot^^_**

**_Sedra; Aah, someone noticed the name! Don't worry, it wasn't a fail, it was on purpose. It's an OC I'm starting to introduce to the story;)_**

**_fi13ns; Oh it's the same each year, really. I know that problem-.- Don't worry, it's gonna get dirty soon enough!P_**

**_SayanWarrior200; Oh yes, I also felt the need to do so while writing XD_**

**_xSapphirexRosesxFan; If only it was that simple hm;)_**

**_Kex3; Yes, I thought it needs someone who loses it in such an environement. I thought Shizuka would fit the best. I think it's also a slight dislike that made me chose her XD Oh yea I'd love to read some of your stuff again, you're a brilliant writer. I love the way you portray Seto's character._**

**_Okay, this chapter's a bit shorter than the others, but it's conent is important. Enjoy!_**

* * *

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-gi-oh! I'm not gaining any profits by posting this! I just own the plot.**_

**Chapter 11: With Security, The Horror's Consequences Come 2**

"Isono."

"Yes, is something wrong?"

Seto's voice was low, he was almost whispering as he called his most trusted bodyguard. Both were now standing in the kitchen, leaning on the table.

"That scumbag on the stairs...We'll let him here. It's out of question that we'll be carrying him around with a broken knee."

"You're absolutely right, but what about the girl?"

"I don't give a shit about her. I just know she'll be an obstacle."

Seto and Isono kept talking about the different options they had. They focused on not hurting anyone, and not to traumatize Mokuba and Michelle even more than they already were. The other troublemaker could be Jou, who would defend her life until death.

It was typical that Shizuka eavesdropped on them while no one noticed. Of course it had to happen that way, she wanted to know what would happen with her and her father after all. She didn't need words to tell her she was unwanted from a few. But she knew who would not let her down, so she ran towards the living room.

"Jou! Jou, Kaiba wants to kill me, and dad too!"

The attention fully belonged to her after she bursted into the room. The version she just cried out was indeed manipulated, how else should she portray Seto as the mean, egoistical enemy? Jou would never accept and let anyone threaten her life. She was family after all. She just failed to understand why her own brother wanted to see their father dead.

"What?"

The blonde instantly stood up and walked towards his sister. She had him!

"He talked with Isono, he's planing on killing me and-"

"You scheming little slut..."

Right as they heard Shizuka running, Seto and Isono knew what was going on. So they quietly went after her, to listen to her newest intrigue.

"Be careful with your words, Kaiba. Is she saying the truth?"

"Are you serious? Of course not. We talked about that pathetic alcoholic at the stairs, and decided to leave him here. Wether she lives or not is none of our concern."

"Shizuka, explain yourself!"

"You believe in his words more than in mine, and don't you even care about dad? He wants to leave him behind so that these zombies eat him alive!"

"So he never said he wanted to kill you?"

"No, but that's not the point, he-"

"I don't see where your problem is. Kaiba did nothing wrong."

Jou looked at the CEO and nodded at him, making him nod back. This was now solved business to them. A silent understanding. Seto turned around to walk away, totally ignoring the shouting Shizuka behind him. The party just got started as he started walking up to the roof.

"He's our father Jou! Don't let him suffer like that!"

Jou seemed to be a perfect copy of Seto right now. His brown eyes were all but soft and inviting like they usually were. They were filled with dusgust and the pain he had to endure until now. Now it was him standing above his abusive 'father', it was him who had the decision between life and death in his hands. Countless times had he been abused and humiliated by this man, and now Shizuka wanted him to have pity with him?

"He would be a burden to us, Kaiba is right. These are my last words about this."

"Ho-How can you even talk about him like that? I HATE YOU!"

The words she spat at him were visibly painful to Jou. After watching her stomp away, he slowly got back to the sofa, and let himself fall on it. His friends couldn't imagine what was possibly going through his mind, now that Shizuka also represented a threat to them. Would he give in to please his beloved little sister, or would he remain strong and stay true to his principes?

Anzu was slowly having enough of Seto's attitude, and how he didn't hold himself back from showing Mokuba and Michelle how he solved complicated interpersonal complications.

She was standing behind him on the roof in no time. It looked like he was preparing himself to shoot.

"You know that what you and Jounouchi are doing is not okay, right?" Anzu put her hands on her hips, to fortify her point. Trying to convince the stubborn CEO was no piece of cake.

"I don't know what you mean..." He sounded as always; bored, uninterested, and probably had the intention to scare her away with his behaviour.

"It's their father, and a human being on top of that, you know?"

"Mh, I don't think of him as a human being since he obviously enjoys maltreating and abusing his own son. And he's not really useful to us. He's loud, annoying, is an addict, and I don't like him."

"How do you even know about...You know, him beating Jou?"

"It's hard to not recognize what's going on between them. The mutt looked like he was paralized as we got that cockroach out of its dirt hole."

That actually got Anzu to think about his point, but there still was something that didn't fit into her head. There was something fundamental missing in Seto's attitude, to her.

"Nevertheless, he has the right to live."

"Keep lying to yourself. I know we think the same."

Seto was slightly frustrated at her attempts to try and 'fix' his opinion. This was exactly what he wanted to avoid as he walked out of the living room before. He already saw Sugoroku stand up, ready to jump on him, verbally of course. The lack of sleep was getting to him, making him all nervous and frustrated, and the last thing he needed was someone like Anzu screeching in his ears right now. Deciding to start his exercise, he put on the black capsule ear protectors and continued to aim at his next target.

"Poor Mokuba."

Seto completely missed the shot as he heard what she said, and instantly stood up.

"What did you just say?"

He came dangerously close to her as he gave her one of the most threatening glares he ever gave to someone.

"Calm down, I didn't mean it like that! I just think it's wrong to teach Mokuba to disrespect other people's life."

Seot smirked at her and her naive ignorance. If she only knew.

"Mokuba's fine, and I'm not that cruel."

"Oh how calming..."

"As long as we don't get threatened we couldn't care less."

"Like that would be better!"

"Are you done? You're getting on my nerves."

"*Sigh* I'm wasting my time with you."

Anzu gave up. It made no sense to stay up here any longer.

"I'm glad you noticed."

That smirk was cruel and incredibly annoying. He was just toying with her! She gave a frustrated sigh, and hrew her arms in the air as she walked towards the door and soon disappeared.


	12. 12 The Gate Between Life And Death

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-gi-oh! I'm not gaining anything by posting this! I just own the plot.**_

* * *

**Chapter 12: The Gate Between Life And Death**

Never in their entire life would they have thought that boredom could be such a serious matter. They knew the usual form of it. They knew the lame afternoons in which they didn't know what to do after school. They knew the extreme form at school, where they would get scolded for even trying to occupate themselves with simply drawing...But this type was entirely new terrain. They were trapped in this mansion, while hundreds of human-eating monsters were waiting for them on the outside.

Roughly two weeks passed since they isolated themselves from the world. The only information source they had was the radio and the television, but even there they wouldn't hear anything.

The time was passed with simple occupations, that made them spend time together, and concentrate on other things than to fight against the fear of struggling to survive. They were safe.

The group grew tighter with the several hours they spend together, with a single exception called 'Seto'. The roof was where he remained most of the time. The importance of his alone time was not to be underestimated with the present circumstances. Never had he passed such a long time with so many people in the same place, which plainly irritated him. He was used to a certain loneliness, in which he didn't have to keep his pokerface, and hold up the walls that prevented anyone from getting close to him.

Mokuba and Michelle were the only exception, of course. Seto sometimes sat down with the two, and played with them. Though he never really opened up like he did when solely Mokuba was there. All he could bring himself to do was to grin at them, making them laugh even more. The kids also loved the sarcastic answers that slipped out of his mouth.

Their laughters that filled the room made Seto relax a bit. He knew the trauma was big, there was no denying. But it was a good sign that the kids were still able to even smile.

While he thought about his little brother, Seto made his way to the usual spot he spend his time on. It was on the other side of the roof's entrance, which led back to the mansion, and perfect to him. One of the reasons why he never was able to sleep during the nights was that he hated presenting himself like that to anyone else than his brother. Only he knew of his vulnerable side, and that should stay like that.

In order to prevent his skin from getting burned, he pulled his hoodie in front of his eyes and buried the rest of his face in his olive green shemag scarf. As soon as he definetly laid his head down on the pillow he took up for himself, he felt himself slipping away.

That was peace to Seto, even if the living dead were not to be overheard. On each single night he had to resist the urge to suffocate Jou. How cold someone even snore that loud?

_'We don't need any loud weapons, the guy is loud enough to attract these things...'_

"Gee, Mokuba, so many hairs!"

"I know, it's a pain to brush them."

"Not anymore."

"It already looks good, Mokuba!"

"Anzu's not done, but thank you Michelle^^."

The three were in Mokuba's private bathroom, where Anzu was taking care of the child's hair.

"You know, I'm kind of glad you're cutting them, it's something new."

"Hmhm, and your brother was right, they really could have caused serious trouble. How did he even know this?"

"I don't really know, he's very observant, and notices things like that."

Anzu remembered he question she always wanted to ask Mokuba.

"Hey um, Mokuba? What do you think about what your brother and Jou want to do with his dad?"

"I think it's a good idea, I'm afraid of the guy hurting us. I would have shot him if I had a gun as he hit Seto."

"Hm, he lost a thumb and got a broken knee. I think your brother gave him quiet a payback."

Anzu wasn't really surprised by Mokuba's attitude. His brother got hurt, it would be weird if he wouldn't feel hat way. If she was honest to herself, she was also afraid of the man, and slowly started to like the idea of leaving him here. Their lifes were already enough threatened by the dead, so there was no need to let the living do the same.

"What about you, Michelle?"

"Mokuba's right. Shizuka always gives me a weird look, and she doesn't treat us well. Seto and Jou are right. Oh, I'm going to look for him. Haven't seen him all day."

"Okay."

The girl wasted no time and ran out of the bathroom. She was very fond of the brothers, and always around them. She was a really lucky girl.

"So, Mokuba, we're done!"

"It looks awesome! Thank you, Anzu!"

"You're welcome."

* * *

"Anzu! Mokuba! I couldn't find Seto!"

Mokuba and Anzu had returned to the living room only two minutes ago. Both knew it would have been better to stay in the bathroom as they noticed what a weird silence surrounded them.

Shizuka was standing next to the door that lead to the stairs, giving Jou an obvious death glare.

She laughed maliciously at Michelle's worry.

"Really? Perhaps he committed suicide because of his bad conscience-"

"SHUT UP, SHIZUKA!"

"Oh, why would I? You were such a nice boy at school, it'sa shame that you let that brother of yours ruin you like that..."

Mokuba had enough of her, so he slapped her across the face as hard as he could. He was prepared, he knew she would hit back and he wasn't afraid. That would give him even more reasons to beat her. Jou, who knew he better not let his sister hit the younger Kaiba was instantly holding her back. He could imagine the chaos if Shizuka got to lay a single finger on him.

"I'm going to look for my brother."

There was no sense in staying in the living room and let that insane girl provoke him any further. As his steps carried him to the roof, he noticed Anzu and Michelle were following him.

"Michelle, were you in his bedroom?"

"Yea, he's not there. But I already looked at the roof, Mokuba!"

"Oh, Seto knows quite some places. I'm sure he's up there."

They opened the door, to find no one, not even in front of the prepared rifle.

Mokuba knew his brother's usual places when he was nowhere to be found. That only meant he wanted to be left alone, and in any normal case he would have respected that wish, but not now.

"I found him."

This was so typical for Seto. He was laying in his left side, arms crossed, and his face buried deep in his shemag. Mokuba knew of his brother's inhibition when it came to sleep in front of anyone except of him, and it made him feel somehow bad that he had led Anzu and Michelle to him, but that was important.

"Seto, wake up."

Seto quickly opened his eyes and looked around until he saw Mokuba, and the two girls.

"Did something happen?" He slowly sat up and streched his neck to the left, to the right and to the back.

"Michelle was looking for you, and yes, something happened."

He saw Michelle smiling brightly at him, confusing him a bit. He still wondered why the girl liked him that much. Didn't she notice his anti-social attitude towards the others?

"I wanted to be with you, and not down there where that crazy woman is. She always looks at me as if I did something wrong."

Seto sighed. He was way too tired to go down there and to talk some sense in that insane chick.

"Just stay away from her, and the guy at the stairs. The other ones arent bothering you, are they?"

"No, they're fine. Look at Mokuba, Anzu cut his hair!"

"Looks good."

"Thank you. Seto, we need to keep an eye on her, she really hates you."

"I know, Mokuba. I just can't place her next to her next to that asshole on the stairs, the mutt would bark the hell out of my nerves-"

"Kaiba, Jou's not a dog!"

Anzu was ignored.

"If she threatens you, don't hesitate to tell me, or to put an end to this."

"Waitwaitwait! Are you just telling Mokuba to kill Shizuka? I know she's being difficult lately, but that doesn't mean we have to kill her! Maybe she gets better with time, who knows?

"I just know that my patience is limited."

Anzu nodded, not wanting to argue with him any further.

"Could you at least sleep a bit?"

That question actually surprised him. Why would she care about him when he just threatened to kill a friend of hers?

"Yes."

Feeling like ending this conversation, he laid back down, put his right arm over his eyes and streched his left leg.

"Looks like I've got lots of time to sleep."

There was nothing to do. No need to stand up early in the morning, to overwork himself only to end up sleeping on his couch in the office for about two or three hours. Money was also no longer needed. There were other priorities, and needs. Other things to worry about, like the unpredictable future. Life had been difficult until now, but it was absolutely nothing compared to this.

* * *

**_Funny, I also got a new haircut yesterday. I waned to try a sidecut and my husband's brothers girlfriend and a friend of hers did it. It looks awesome ( not entirely bold, I left 3 mm on the right side)._**

**_I'm at chapter 28 on my blue prints, and I can tell you, it's gonna be funny (and disgusting at some parts). For those who are a bit afraid of me not finishing this story; don't worry, I've got many ideas, and it's not gonna end that soon._**

**_Thank you for reading! And remember to review!_**

**_Greets, Emi;)_**


	13. 13 Boredom And Tension Don't Mix Well

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-gi-oh! I'm not gaining anything by posting this! I just own the plot.**_

* * *

**Chapter 13: Boredom And Tension Don't Mix Well**

The gate became a hot spot for the living dead, whose instinct led them to the noise the masses were making. An indirect communication. Since Seto had way too much ammo to transport, he chose to continue to teach the group how to shoot properly for about an hour every day, and to take care of the guns. Those needed to be cleaned, oiled, and the function should be controlled. And sincerely, no one wants a stoppage while facing hungry zombies...The time seemed to pass faster with that small bit of structure, in which the older Kaiba calmly explained and showed fundamental basics. Too many bullets had been wasted during the rescue of Sugoroku and the others.

The gate was also a matter that needed to be taken care of. None of them knew for how long it would manage to hold the constant weight of the pushing, cold corpses. There were at least five hundred of them, and more of the unwanted guests kept joining every few minutes.

That's when Seto and Jou started walking around the place at least once a day, to observe the condition, and to eventually be able to correct what could be a fatal damage.

"Seems like the two learned to work with one another."

All oft them, except of Shizuka and the other, older Katsuya were now standing on the edge of the roof, watching the two slowly walking through the still green grass.

"I don't know, Yugi. But they sure have guts." It send a shiver down Mokuba's spine to see his brother and one of his best friends being that close to what could kill them without any mercy. Though it was calming to see each one of them carrying a black pumpgun.

"I wonder what they're talking about..."

"So, how did you find out-"

"That you were beaten by that father of yours?" Seto guessed, while slightly kicking the protecting metal to see if it gave in. Jou gave him a shocked look. It was true, he said it himself, directly into his face. What a shame that Kaiba knew of his biggest weakness, and that he was barely able to defend himself from his abusive dad. The only question was; would he rub it into his face?

"Go on, laugh about it. I know it's silly to let him beat me up at my age. I could have done something."

"I'm the last one to laugh about such a serious matter. Gozaburo wasn't better."

"I thought he just forced to study a lot."

Seto chuckled slightly, and pulled his shemag down, to give Jou a special sight on his neck, on one of Gozaburo's once preferred places.

"Then where do you think do these come from?"

Jou abruptly stopped walking, to take a closer look at Seto's neck. There sure were a lot of scars.

"Damn, Kaiba, what did that ass do to you?"

"I believe I can trust you about that?"

"Yes, as you said, that's something no one should make jokes about. I won't even tell my friends."

"Okay, you know the consequences-When"

"Yes, I'm not such an asshole. I'd be glad if we could stop pestering each other. I promise to stop calling you moneybags."

Seto looked down at the hand Jou offered him, and had to be sincere to himself; They already had enough troubles, and he was too tired to constantly bitch around with Jou. Seto accepted and shook his hand.

"Gozaburo was a sadistic old fool who loved torturing me whenever he felt like it. These aren't the only scars I've got. He mostly used his belt. I found out due to your behavior. I was exactly like that as my step-father was still around. Always scared, not wanting to cause any discussion or even get his attention."

Jou only nodded, cursing himself for acting that obviously.

"I'm sorry for what I told you at the lawyer's office."

"Mh, that was nothing."

* * *

"That's the wrong angle."

"Do you think?"

"Yep."

"Okay." Seto moved his finger on the touch screen and prepared the bird to be shot as Michelle thought it would be best. Both were sitting on a couch on the back of the living room, playing Angry Birds.(I do not own!). Mokuba was currently sitting on the floor, playing duel monsters with Yugi, Jou, and Hanasaki. Sugoroku was sitting by the radio, still hoping to get any useful news.

Anzu was sitting on the opposite couch, reading a book she and Mokuba got from the library. There was nothing else to do.

She couldn't help but to listen to what Seto and Michelle talked about while they were playing that videogame on his phone, and to wonder about how social he was to Michelle. He barely talked to anyone else, beside of her and Mokuba. He didn't even bother about the girl leaning on his left arm.

Seto was glad to see his little brother was still able to enjoy a simple game of cards. The boy was haunted by horrific nightmares that made him suffer almost every second night. His older brother always had to help him through the first few hours after he woke up, until he fell asleep again.

After Mokuba was asleep, Seto used the tranquility to lay down on the couch, and to try to relax at least a bit. That was when he first noticed the slight shaking in his left lower arm. _'Damnit, not again...'_

"Kaiba, my father needs to go to the bathroom."

Shizuka desperately tried to put some authority in her voice while her death glare could not get worse. None of this had the slightest effect on Isono and Seto, who stood up and took their guns. It would be foolish to underestimate Jou's younger sibling.

The group had gotten used to that, so no one even bothered to look up from whatever they were doing.

Once the handcuffs were opened, Shizuka helped her dad getting up. Seto and Isono stood next to them, with their guns pointed at the unpredictable man, who was still insulting and swearing whenever he opened his mouth.

It took him a very long time to walk up to the first floor to get to the toilets, which no one except of him dared to use due to the bad smell. Luckily this was a mansion with many bathrooms...

His younger daughter always needed to help him standing, so it was unavoidable that she got into the bathroom with him.

"So, dad. We'll do as we repeated."

"Yea, they're goin' to pay..."

Yes, both had thought of a plan, in order to be able to escape and to get rid of everyone else. Jou was no longer a part of t heir family, so the decision to kill him too was made very quickly and without moral scruples.

Righte before the closed bathroom door, their supervisors weren't thinking of them even being able to plan anything. They just wanted to get this over with as fastly as possible.

"Aah! No! Dad, stop!"

Seto and Isono shortly looked at each other with frustration before they opened the door to eventually help. Eventually.

Seto's eyes widened as he suddenly felt a pain he never had the bad luck to feel before. His eyes were as wide as saucers while he grabbed his nuts and fell over. His stomach started rebelling, making him start choking. Shizuka used the huge advantage as Isono looked out for Seto, and hastly grabbed the gun that originally belonged to the once armed brunette. Since she hadn't been allowed to follow the instructions Seto had given, the gun was handed to her father who actually knew how to handle the thing.

This time, Isono had not been distracted. As soon as he saw where Seto's gun had wandered to, he saw no other option but to fire a few times, so that the man wouldn't be able to even think of using it.

The lound noise made everyone in the living room jump on the spot before they started to run up to the first floor. The first thing they noticed was a hysterical Shizuka, who was being handcuffed by a very stressed Isono.

"Seto!" Mokuba made them look to their left, where Seto was leaning on the wall, breathing heavily.

"You slut!"

Mokuba instantly ran towards Shizuka and punched her in the face as hard as he could. Seto sensed what would come now, so despite the immense pain in his croth, he stood up and walked to Mokuba. Just as he expected, Jou, who already wanted to say something against Isono's measures, lifted his fist, ready to hit the younger Kaiba, who already started protecting his face, too. The fist never reached the target because Seto was the faster one. Jou fell on his butt, holding the left side of his face. He was quickly on his feet again, ready to launch himself at Seto. It would have worked, if it wasn't for Yugi, Anzu and Sugoroku, who wanted to avoid any more escalations.

Kind of glad they did so, Seto allowed himself to double over again, still breathing heavily.

"Touch him only once, and you'll end up like that scumbag!"

"Mokuba had no right to hit Shizuka!"

"Are you kidding? She was planning on killing Seto, and probably all of us too!"

Mokuba understood Jou to a certain point, but it stopped at the thought of him defending the woman who wanted to eliminate his only living family.

"And what if I plannned on killing you? It doesn't matter anymore. Jou is a damned traitor, while you are all sadistic fools!"

"That's enough, Isono. Bring her to a room and lock her in there."

While Jou, Sugoroku and Yugi followed Isono, Mokuba, Michelle and Anzu followed Seto out of the bathroom.

Beyond frustrated, the older Kaiba made his way down to the living room, and sat down on one of the couches. His head was was full of bloody and painful murdering ideas he would like to push to practice...

"I told you, Kaiba. You shouldn't have tied him there."

Anzu sat down at the opposite couch, while Mokuba, Michelle and Hanasaki stood next to them. Seto rolled his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. He had no nerve for this.

"Yea, I should have let him walk around, and give him a gun too. My mistake..."

"Oh quit the sarcasm, you know what I mean!"

"Could we continue this...Conversation when I don't feel like throwing up?"

His voice was slightly high pitched as he ended the sentence. He looked genuinely pissed, with a well deserved 'P'. It got even worse as he saw Yugi, Sugoroku and Jou entering the living room.

"That sister of yours is a royal pain, mutt."

The confusion in Jou's head was overwhelming. To a point where even the fact that he was called a dog once again was not even noticed.

"She's been through a lot, Kaiba. Please understand that..."

"So did we. Look at Mokuba or Michelle, they're not freaking out like that bitch!"

Seto knew of his primitive choice of words, but seriously...did it matter?

"Each one of us has a different reaction, and she's no bitch, she's my sister!"

"Then make sure to keep her on the leash!"

That was enough! How could he make sure to stay safe when they were able to ruin everything with their damn emotions? It was a difficult time, and they got nothing more to do than to make his life more miserable than it already was!

* * *

_**I guess I owe Seto a huge apology...^^'**_

_**Shizuka's having her very own reaction to the extreme situation. Don't forget, everyone's individual, and has different ways to handle such things.**_

_**So, tell me what you think will happen! I'm excited to see what you're expecting ;)**_

_**Thank you! Greets, Emi;)**_


	14. 14 Bad Mistake

_******Wow, thank you for the many reviews on othe last chapter! Twice as normal!)**_

_**What Kex3 wrote really is true. I should've put more weight on the fact that Seto is currently tired to bitch around with Jou, and I'm sure you noticed, they do get along very well when it comes to co-work in that special zombie situation. Anyway, you're gonna notice in the future chapters.**_

* * *

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-gi-oh! I'm not gaining any profits by posting this! I just own the plot.**_

**Chapter 14: Bad Mistake**

"Either you take care of this, or I'll do it. I'm sure the first option suits you better..."

"Yes, it does. We locked her in a room on the second floor, Isono is still there. I'll take care of her."

"Just make sure she's out of the way!"

"Kaiba, you should calm down a bit-"

"Yugi, I just got kicked in the nuts, I don't feel like calming down!" (AN: Oh God, I lol'd so much as I wrote that...)

Yes, even Kaiba Seto had weak points, two, to be exact... It took him quite some time to get over his foul mood. The only ones allowed to even talk to him were Mokuba and Michelle, who also preferred to leave him alone. There was no reason to be afraid of him, they knew so, but being his little brother, Mokuba knew when Seto needed some time for himself. He had spend the whole time reading, either on the roof, or in the living room, trying to give his nerves a chance to calm down.

The additional worry about the crazed woman in that one guestroom was annoying. As if there weren't enough dangers on the outside, waiting for the group to make a mistake, so that their delicious flesh and blood could be tasted.

Who knew what souls had belonged to all those bodies? What life had they been living until death ripped them out of their daily routine so horribly? Were they criminals who deserved such a cruel fate? Did they even notice what was happening during the chase for new victims to satisfy their primitive needs? So many questions that weren't to be answered. Trying out was not possible, since there was no coming back.

There was a corpse in the bathroom. The corpse would start to stink, and the guy already had been smelling like something bad as his heart still was beating.

Jou and Seto were forced to drag the body out of the mansion, and all the way through the huge garden. Despite the uncompfortable fact that they were just disrespecting a human being, it was quite amusing to observe both struggling to get the heavy body down. Seto had his shemag over his nose, completely covering any possible space that would allow that disgusting air to reach his nose, while Jou had a t-shirt tied around his face. Only the occasional swearing helped both men getting this over with.

The blonde was the only one who was willing to go upstairs to visit Shizuka during the next few days. He brought her food, water, and all the necessary stuff that would make her a bit more compfortable. She kept pleading him to release her, and promised not to try and get back at Seto. As much as he wished he could believe her, he could not. His, and the other's death had been part of the younger girl's plan, and such a rage didn't fade away that simply.

Jou was not able to remain strong any longer. He was just not able to see his sister crying as desperately as she did, so, ignoring his protesting inner voice, he released her from the handcuffs. The only condition she had to respect was not to leave her room, and to remain quiet. If Seto ever got to know about this...

Jou's soft side towards his sister should turn out to be a fatal mistake right in the next night.

* * *

Shizuka's feet carried her through the awfully silent corridor, which led to the stairs where she had spend almost all of her time on, looking after her and Jou's father. She just couldn't believe how her sibling could let their only living family down like that. He treated their only parent left like dirt, and let him die without even scolding his murderer!

Shizuka knew very well of Kaiba's habit to stay awake during the night, but she also knew that he tended to doze off sometimes, without even noticing. There was her chance to get back at all of them, especially at Kaiba.

She couldn't believe what luck she had as she saw he was knocked out.

_'It's now or never...'_

Shizuka slowly walked towards her sleeping enemy, being extremely careful with her steps and general movements. Any mistakes could cost her her life, after all. And there was no way those fools would escape without feeling the wrath of her revenge.

Even if she spent most of her time at the stairs, it didn't mean she hadn't observed where Seto had his weapons on himself. At first she looked for the normal gun, but overthought her idea. After just one shot, everyone would wake up, and she would not be able to get every single one of them. No, they would suffer for ignoring, and humiliating her like that...

_'There!'_

Shizuka found the hand grenade in Seto's side pocket, and managed to take it off. In that single moment, she noticed someone watching her. Anzu always woke up in between, causing her to sleep bad. Every surprise was to be avoided since it could only be negative. As she wanted to turn around, she saw a figure over the apparently sleeping Seto. Her blurry vision disappeared soon, and there, Jou's younger sister.

They remained in their positions for two seconds, until Shizuka decided to destroy them otherwise. The grenade would be thrown back at herself, due to the ruined unnoticed moment.

Anzu, highly alarmed decided to do what was best, and woke Shizuka's worst nightmare up.

"KAIBA WAKE UUUP!"

Seto winced at the sudden noise and instantly opened his eyes. As his eyes fell on the fleeing Shizuka, he shot up and sprinted behind her, his stomach already rebelling against the sudden, and hectic movement mixed with adrenaline.

_'What the hell?'_

He thought the main door would be the trap that would stop her, until she hastly opened them with the keys...

_'No wonder, they were laying on the counter the whole time, fuck!'_

Just as he managed to rudely grab her shoulder, Shizuka pulled the small stick out, and threw the grenade at the gate.

While Seto realized what it would mean, and his eyes widened, the others just came out of the mansion, wondering what was happening.

As if in slow motion, he turned around and covered his ears, in order to prevent any more damage than they already suffered from all the shooting.

A huge explosion followed, and as Shizuka expected, the gate was destroyed in no time, as well as some of the undead. But the impact was by far not enough to get all mutilated bodies.

Seto looked back, and saw the picture he was afraid of seeing since they had isolated the mansion from the outside. The undead started making their way towards what could possibly be their next meal.

"To the cars, to the cars!"

The usually cool Seto started sprinting again, panic written all over his face. He did have a gun with him, on the backside of his belt, but fifteen bullets would never be enough against these masses.

Jou was glad that Seto's attention solely belonged to Mokuba and to Michelle, who were running towards the garage and screaming in fear. He let Shizuka in before the door was definetly closed.

The Humvees were already prepared, full of food, weapons and water, and before the second garage door that led to an underground tunnel.

Jou had earned a worryed look from Yugi as he, as discretely as possible, opened the door for Shizuka so that she could enter too.

"Anzu, what's wrong? Come on, start the car!"

Yugi's gaze switched back and forth between their, Seto's, Isono's, Michelle's and Mokuba's Humvee, which was already halfway through the opened door.

"I'm not taking Shizuka with us!"

They heard how the moans got louder, and how it started pounding on the metallic door that led to them. The lock would surely not hold any longer against that massive weight.

"Anzu, go!"

"No!"

"We're all going to die, just fucking drive!"

There was just too much pressure on Anzu, who also heard the noise. Isono was already waving her to drive behind himself, and giving her asking looks.

She then looked back at the door, which now was no longer obstacle...

"MAZAKI, STOP DAYDREAMING!"

Just as Seto yelled at her, she realized in which danger they found themselves in. It didn't matter if Shizuka was with them, she was their smallest problem, even if she she was the reason they lost the probably best protection...

_'We'll decide later...'_

She finally managed to start the Humvee.

!BOOM!

"Waaaah!"

Hands, mutilated body parts, tongues, and ripped faces smeared the blood that probably belonged to more people than she would want to know on the window.

Finally, Anzu beat the trance she had found herself in for a few seconds, and drove away with screeching tires.

* * *

_**Okay, that was chapter 14. You didn't think I'll let them stay in that huge, and safe mansion, eh ;)**_

_**I hope you liked it! Please don't forget to review!**_

_**Greets, EmiXD**_


	15. 15 On The Road

_**Hey there!**_

**_I noticed a few of you want to have some more Anzu/Seto contact. Don't worry, it's going to come. I just don't want to rush it all. I'm trying not to solely focus on those two, since the plot is about how the group survives. But of course, there will be scenes with them ;)_**

* * *

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-gi-oh! I'm not gaining any profits by posting this! I just own the plot.**_

**Chapter 15: On The Road**

The ride through the tunnel lasted for ten terribly long minutes. The only light source they had was effectively only their cars, which made the unknown environement even more ominous.

The atmosphere was icy in the car which Anzu was now driving. The woman was somewhat confused by herself. Before all of this had started, she would've never let anyone behind to face their secured death, no matter what the person did. While Anzu doubted on herself and her moral scruples that obviously started to fade away, Jou was having a hard time with himself.

How could he be that gullable? and foolish? Shizuka, who was now sitting next to him, starring ar her hands, had obviously tricked and used him. Her own brother! Not to mention the trouble the angry owner of their once perfect hiding spot would cause once he'll discover the girl...

_'Why did it turn out this way? I thought she was serious about not trying anything dumb. She looked so sincere. And now she's responsible for the loss of our hiding spot. That was a freakin' mansion with a gate all around it! That was the perfect protection for us! She wants us all to die, she has no mercy. I don't know what to do with her. She's my sister, I love her, dammit...'_

Jou turned around, so that no one would see him crying over the dilemma he found himself if there was a place where they would be safe and sound? A place where there were no human eating monsters that were longing for their succulent flesh? Shizuka would have a chance to get over the trauma that obviously messed with her head, and return being the nice girl she once had been.

Then, finally, Isono started to get slower and slower until the second vehicle was also forced to stop. Just as assumed, a small garage door, enough for the Humvees was opened in front of them. It was still dark outside, but not as dark as in the tunnel they now gladly left behind. Some monsters had managed to get inside the emergency exit the vehicles passed through, so the automatic door was closed as fastly as possible.

The first thing they did after they finally were sure the place they stopped at was safe enough, was to step out, and to breathe some well doing, fresh air.

"Jou, Kaiba will bite her head off!"

Yugi could only hope he was being as discreet as he thought he was being. What had his best friend been thinking? He hasn't been thinking at all. They should have known it was no good idea to let him take care of his sister. He had been the perfect victim.

"What the fuck?! I thought she was handcuffed?!"

_'Oh, I knew it...'_

"Kaiba, wait, we should talk..."

"Did you drag her along?"

"Yes-"

"What kind if brain damage- I thought she was handcuffed! You freed her, didn't you?"

"She's my sister! What do you-"

The blonde had started to get angry, and wanted to remind Seto of the fact that he also had a sibling, and could maybe understand what it meant to make such a decision. But he was interrupted.

"Jonouchi, you are a traitor. At first you let our father down, then you refused to free me...How could you do this?!"

Shizuka interrupted the forming argument between Jou and Seto, totally taking them offguard.

"Shizuka, I-"

"I don't want you to talk to me. I'm going to take my revenge right now. Kaiba, I'm going to make you suffer."

A gun was pulled out of nowhere, and pointed it towards Seto, whose eyes widened instantly. Where did she get that thing from anyway? To his surprise, she didn't keep her gun pointed at him. As if in slow motion, they watched her change the direction until she stopped by Mokuba.

The duty of a bodyguard was to protect his clients. Plain, simple, and exactly what Isono did as soon as he recognized the planned murder attempt.

Shizuka made her last mistake as she starred at Seto for two seconds, starting to enjoy the fear in his eyes. She smiled maliciously as suddenly, an unexpected rain of bullets fell upon her.

_'No, this can't be-'_

These were her last thoughts as she tried to pull the trigger with the last rest of strenght that was left. She never went as far as she wanted, since one of the bullets went straight through her hand.

"No, NO, SHIZUKAAA!"

Jou instantly pulled out his own gun, and killed the murderer of his sister with several bullets that went everywhere in his body. Yugi and Sugoroku made him stop before he could cause too much noise and eventually attract the dead. There was not many force needed since he broke down and fell on his knees before starting sobbing heavily.

Sugoroku carefully took the gun from Yugi's best friend's hand and gave it to Seto, who originally wanted to prevent Jou from continuing to make a living target out of them. After he put the rifle in his side pocket, he took some seconds to let the reality sink in. He had lost his most trusted bodyguard. Isono had been there since Gozaburo, he had known about every gruesome detail, really. And now, he was dead. He died doing his job, even if he knew he would get no check at the end of the month. Well, theoretically he would, but he certainly wouldn't have the opportunity to spend it on something.

Seto crossed his arms behind his head and turned around. He didn't want to let them see how desperated he was in the moment. How in the world were they supposed to continue? Where were they suppposed to hide? The towns were probably full of dangers and traps that were just waiting for them to be naive enough and to step in.

He gave a loud sigh and turned around, to walk towards Mokuba and Michelle who were just standing there, watching the whole display. Two dead people on the floor, full of blood and disfigured to no end. The rest of the group was all around Jou who was probably having the break down of the century.

Seto opened the door and got into the car with them. They needed a bit of distance right now, and it would surely not help to continue starring at the bloody scenario.

"Are You okay?"

He was more than worried about the the two. Kids weren't supposed to see such things. They probably wouldn't forget this for a very long time.

But Seto knew he couldn't allow himself to show any weakness in front of Mokuba and Michelle. It would only demoralize them even more, if that still was possible.

"Seto, I'm so scared. Everything happend so-fast, it feels like I was sleeping two seconds ago, and now Shizuka and Isono are dead...I'm scared of losing you!"

The smaller one buried his head in his brother's chest and started to cry even more. Michelle placed a hand at his back, trying to console him, but she was also at her limits. She noticed how Seto was looking at her, and was glad that he cared.

"I'm-okay. It...Wasn't the first time. I saw my parents die."

It took only a few minutes for the two youngest of the group to doze off, which gave Seto the opportunity to step out, and take a look at the present circumstances.

Just after he closed the door, he met Anzu, who was probably a bit disoriented.

"Are Mokuba and Michelle okay?"

"Better, but not alright. We should let them sleep."

She only nooded and covered her eyes with her right hand.

_'What should I do now? She looks a lot like Mokuba when she's sad like that.'_

"Can I, uh-do something for you?"

Very surprised by his question, Anzu looked up at the taller man. He started hating himself for asking as she suddenly wrapped her arms around him and started sobbing in his chest.

_'Great...'_

What was that?! He thought she still hated him for treating people like dirt and disrespecting the dead, and now she wanted him to console her?

After hesitating for a few seconds, Seto finally managed to somehow get over himself and to wrap his arms around her and to stay like that. And now?

An awful long minute passed as she finally was calm enough to release him, and to realize how close they were.

"Better?"

"Yea-thank you."

Starring contests were not Seto's favourite things to do, so he ended it with a quick nod, and slowly walked over to Jou, who was only starring at the ground with a lifeless gaze?

"Do you want to bury her?"

"Yes."

"Okay, we just need to be fast."

"I know-Shit!" Jou just finished getting to his feet, as dark figures appeared in the far distance, getting nearer with hectical moves, moaning, and hissing at the group.

Isono and Shizuka would never get buried. There was no time left.

* * *

_**Once again, a big thank you to those who take the time to review! That way I also have a slight idea of what You guys are expecting from me, and can work on the plot appropriately. I'll try to update sooner this time!**_

_**Greets, Emi;)**_


	16. 16 A New Target

_**Creepy, we're already on chapter 16...0.o'**_

_**I've noticed that chapter 13 and 14 came out all in italic! It wasn't on purpose, and I apologize if it caused some confusion!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-gi-oh! I'm not gaining anything by posting this! I just own the plot.**_

* * *

**Chapter 16: A New Target**

Domino city was not to be recognized, that was for sure. Buildings were burning, several gun shots, police sirenes and car horn beepings were to be heard. Kaiba Corp, being the largest and highest building was still standing tall, and still not burning, as far as Seto was able to see.

Why should he worry about anything else? The mansion, which he never wanted to call his 'home' was already full of those parasites, and he knew of no other place that should be more important to him than the skyscraper.

They had stopped on their way to the target they still had to define. It was useless to drive and drive and drive without knowing where nothing went after their lifes.

"Where are we going to now?"

Hanasaki rarely talked. What should he say anyway? He was too shy to give his own ideas and to share his opinion. It would always remain the same, exactly like in school. He was the smallest, the weakest, and all he seemed to be to other people was a cheap punching bag.

"I'd say we look out for a refuge, and try to find the right channel at the radio."

Since nothing was said against Sugoroku's suggestion, the group discretely moved towards the woods. They couldn't imagine a safer place to stay at, since the towns were where most people stayed. Dead or alive, it didn't matter, everything could represent danger right now.

"I think we can stop here." Yugi parked underneath a rather big tree, Anzu soon did the same.

This would be the first time they had effectively to stay outside since the roamers started wandering around. The fear was visibly eating them from the inside during the first hours. Jou and Seto were going all paranoid and only stopped walking around to drink some water and to report each other the current situation around their temporary place to stay. Both had an AK-47 with themselves, and were ready to use it in any case.

The constant walking around of the two was quite a stress source. No one knew if it was alright if they sat down or not. Who knew how fastly they'd had to get away?

"I think we are safe here." Jou stated as he and Seto sat down on the floor near the fire Yugi and Anzu had started before. It was enough to last a whole night, at least. They wouldn't have needed any more, due to what Sugoroku told them in the morning.

* * *

"Yokohama? How far is that from here?" Jou never had paid enough attention at school to know such things. For what? He never had enough money to discover other and most of all new places, and never thought of the possible, life changing turn in which such knowledge was an advantage.

In contrary of Jou, Seto knew exactly how far away Yokohama was, and it was certainly not a cat's jump. The business trips he was forced to do as a CEO had send him to all of the worlds directions, and Yokohama also belonged to them.

"Mh, shit. That's 200 Kilometers away from here. Now the question is if it's worth putting ourselves in such danger to get there. We don't even know if it's still safe."

"Look, I heard the message just a few minutes ago, and the date was actualized. Stop being so pessimistic!"

Sugoroku was surprised by his own little outburst.

"I'm not fucking pessimistic, I'm just _a bit_ worried about the masses of nice corpses we'll get to meet on our way there. Does that get into your head?"

What was that old fool thinking? Nothing was normal anymore. They could not just drive on the highway, which was probably full of standing cars and roamers, as a result of the common panic and the obligatory chaotic traffic, like the world was still normal.

"Is it worth a try then?"

Yugi asked the question probably all of them had in their heads.

"No infections, huh?"

Deep in thoughts, Jou leaned on one of the Humvees.

"Theoretically we should have more than enough ammo to defend ourselves. And if it's true that there's no infection, than it may be worth it. What do you think, Kaiba?"

Seto nodded. "It does sound good. We should just not drive on the highways."

A collective nod comfirmed the definitive decision; the group's next destination would be Yokohama. Maybe the solution for the post-apocalyptic situation they found themselves in?

Without losing much time, the preparations to start travelling were made, and everyone sat into the vehicles.

Anzu earned an asking look from Seto, who was obviously surprised by her choice of place.

"What? You need someone to take over, in-let's say-two hours."

"Why? I'm fine."

"Right, you haven't slept in nights."

"I'm used to that."

"But you won't deny that it's vey unhealthy, right?"

Were women always that annoying? He rolled his eyes as he opened a bottle of water and took a sip out of it.

"They sound like my parents did." Was the only thing Michelle was able to say after some intense observation of the two in the front.

While Anzu's eyes widened, the front window was kind of wet after Seto spat his mouth's content out, making both kids behind laugh hysterically. Slightly shaking his head, the older Kaiba wiped his mouth and started to drive.

_'At least they're still able to laugh.'_

* * *

"Where do you put all of this?"

"Hm?" Seto turned around while he put another apple ring in his mouth. Anzu looked like she was kind of worrying, but why? The road was not as clean as they had hoped. There were a few single loners that directly noticed them and started following, but since the vehicles were too fast, there was little to no reason to worry much. So why that face?

"Because this is the second package you finished. Are you feeling well? I don't want you to puke in here."

"I'm positive. Mokuba, are there other ones?"

His little brother untied his belt to look at the bag that originally contained things like candys or sweets.

"No."

"Mh, fuck."

"You mean you want more?"

"Mh, sure."

"Don't worry, Anzu. He always does that. The only disadvantage is that he's sugar high."

"I'm not!"

"Stop denying it, big brother. Remember when you scared the shit out of one of the maids?"

Mokuba leaned between the two front seats and gave Seto an obvious look.

"Which one?"

"You know, the black haired. I believe her name was Naomi."

"Oh, right." Seto slightly flinched at the memory.

"She started a therapy twice in the week because you've had five strawberry sundaes in a single afternoon..."

Anzu never really had heard a normal conversation between the Kaiba brothers. It was funny hearing Mokuba tease the guy next to her like this, and it was even funnier to imagine Kaiba Seto working while eating ice cream, or running around, threatening to fire his employees when he didn't get his sugar in time. Besides, it was funny to know even the 'perfect' CEO had his weak moments.

"What did you do?" Her interested tone was not to be overheard, though she was already feeling sorry for the woman.

"You see, Anzu, sometimes when big brother couldn't sleep, he just watched a movie. It was roughly a year ago, after he saw the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie. After that he went to the kitchen to make himself something to eat, and well, he ended up slamming the knife into his hand-"

"Yeah, because you banged the door open!" Seto had to defend himself in a semi-high pitched tone. Slightly annoyed by the fact that Mokuba spilled so many details about their private life.

"-And I'm still sorry for that, bro, I thought you were in your room. Anyway, I was curious as you said you had an idea, but I kinda got worried as you took the chainsaw from the cellar."

"=.=' What did he do?"

Before Mokuba was able to continue and tell her his side of the story, Seto felt the need to tell her what exactly went through his mind at that time. Not even knowing why. Maybe because the kid was totally exaggerating.

"I was just wondering about the reaction I would get, so I scared her a bit. I guess the additional blood from my hand made it a bit more realistic."

"Seto, you kicked the door open and turned the chainsaw on like a maniac. Naomi thought she was about to die! XD"

"Hey, at least I was fair enough to give her a huge bonus and to pay her therapy."

She was still dumbfounded and found it hard to believe. Seto was someone to scold the person doing things like that, and not do it himself.

"Michelle, Mokuba, no more sweets for Kaiba. Who knows what would go through his mind this time!"

"Makes more for u~us!" Both threw his arms in the air and made Seto and Anzu chuckle.

Anzu would have paid to see the look he gave her right after he last sentence. Was that all it needed to make him look at her like that? Well, she would definetly keep that one. He looked like a pouting five years old boy.

The next few minutes were drowned in silence in which the driver had to concentrate on the road. Sometimes there were quite big objects, such as cars, or motorcicles lying on their way, making an obstacle out of themselves.

Bwww

Bwww

Bwww

"Yes?"

"Hey Kaiba, I need petrol."

Seto fixed his icy blue eyes at his own tank display, and realized he was also in need of fuel. Otherwise the trip would have to continue without the protecting vehicles. The only thought of it was terrifying.

"Me too. Next filling station?"

"Yea."

"Good."

Jou and Seto had a very special kind of communication when it came to the challenge of keeping the group safe. Short and effective.

Soon, the needed filling station was found. Unfortunately it wasn't in the middle of nowhere. The small village behind the small, but modern looking building looked awfully empty. Even though it was scaring, the fuel was more than only necessary if they wanted to continue to travel like before.

"Hey Kaiba, where are you going?"

Seto turned around, and saw Jonouchi next to him.

"We should lay in stock as much as possible." Jou understood. Why not? Every opportunity to collect food should be used.

"You're right. Let's see what they've got in there..."

To their surprise the shop looked like nothing bad had ever happened. The lights were on, the fan on the ceiling was still turning...It looked too good to be true. The only fishy thing was that there was no one to keep both guys from putting whatever they wanted into the bags.

"We should go, I have a bad feeling about the silence here."

Jou said as he opened the door, making the small bell above it ring once again. Both were too distracted from the tranquility to think about the consequences that could follow after such a shrill noise.

"Did you notice the weird silence in this village?"

Taking a quick look around, Seto tried to think about why he hadn't noticed what Jou just mentioned.

"Let's go."

Their quick steps led them back to the cars, where Anzu, Yugi, Hanasaki, Mokuba, Sugoroku and Michelle were standing on the outside, stretching their legs out a bit from the long ride.

"Here, Mokuba." The little one put the, now full of sweets, bag on the backseat.

"Oh cool!"

Both kids got into the car and waited for everyone else to get in. Staying on the outside next to a seemingly empty village was not worth striving for.

Before he opened the door to the driver's seat, Seto had to stop himself due to the sudden attack of dizzyness. He had known this would have to come soon. Except of the unintentional small nap he had taken before the mansion had become too dangerous, sleep had been rare. No wonder he was at his limits at the moment. The daily work shedule had shown how difficult it could be to keep his eyes open, and to not loose the strenght and control over his limbs. But that was another thing back then. Everything had felt so numb, as if his soul was floating above his body and he would fall over in any second.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Huh?"

In the middle of his fight against the urge to collapse and just to sleep on the floor, Seto managed to collect himself a bit to look at Anzu with at least a small trace of concentration. Even a small glare was possible.

"You seriously should sleep. I won't let you drive in that state."

Did he look that wretched?

"Come on, don't be so stubborn."

As he gave up and lost the will to fight against his mind that was yelling at him not to do so, he saw what was happening behind Yugi and Jou. It took him almost a whole second to react. Maybe Mazaki was right...

"LOOK OUT, YUGI!"

Said one immediately turned around, to find himself in the teared arms of a rather tall zombie, who tried to bend down on him. Jou had been putting his bag in the back of the car, and had yet to come forward. Still, he managed to save Yugi with a shot from his gun in time. The smaller one hastly got into the Humvee through the driver's seat and moved to the passenger side to allow his best friend to get in.

"Mazaki, get in!"

Seto was now positively awake. They were everywhere now! Why the hell did no one hear these thing coming nearer and nearer?!

The older Kaiba was the last one of the group who still had to run to the right side of the car, but it turned out to be a little more complicated than it should be.

Almost in panic because he saw three unwanted guests before the door which would lead him to the inside, Seto tried to turn away, but lost his balance, and fell directly on front of their feet.

The only thing stopping him from instantly standing up and to shoot their heads off was the sudden pain in his right anke that was obviously sprained. His eyes widened.

"Shit..."

"Seto!"

* * *

**_Hey everyone! I can't thank you enough for the constant support ! Right now I'm working on a wallpaper for this story. I think it's gonna look good. I'll let you know when I'll publish it on my DA account!_**

**_I hope you liked this chapter, see ya then!_**

**_-Emi;)_**


	17. 17 The Corrupt Safety

_**Hey guys, this is Emi! I apologize for the long waiting time, especially after such an evil cliffhanger! Please don't throw the tomatoes^^' Work has been a killer lately, and on top of that, the friggin' wallpaper I was drawing for this story just pissed me off, so I decided to make a new one. Very simply!**_

**_Also, my hands were pratically tied to the controller this week-end, because I've bought the new DMC (Devil May Cry) game. On top of that, one of my favourite bands did the music for it, and I can tell you, it really rocks to blast some demon's heads off to the sound of Combichrist!_**

_**Before we start, I'd like to thank those who took the time to review! It really means much to me, and keeps me going on! I hope you enjoy chapter 17!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-gi-oh! I'm not gaining any profits by posting this! I just own the plot.**_

* * *

**Chapter 17: The Corrupt Safety**

BANG!

There went head and content number one. Two to go.

CLICK.

CLICK..

CLICK...!

An empty magazine shattered the defense plan.

And then, just as he prepared himself to stand up and to push them away with all the energy that was left, Seto heard two loud shots ringing through the air. Along with the blood and the gore, the corpses that now died for a second time fell backwards and lied there, motionless, and revealing a crowd that was just waiting for Seto not manage to stand up in time so that they could get their fresh meal.

"Come in, Kaiba!"

Anzu opened the door, and pulled at his sweater to help him getting in. It was almost too late as he sat down on the passenger seat. Luckily he still had a useful leg, which allowed him to kick the closest of his aggressors back.

As soon as the door was closed, Anzu wasted no time and got them out of that apocalyptic scene that could be straight from a really bad movie.

"Seto, are you alright?!"

Mokuba and Michelle were instantly by him, hysterically asking if he got bitten.

"No, no, I'm alright. Just sprained my ankle."

He was out of breathe and still in shock. How the hell could he be that clumsy in such a dangerous situation? Anzu was also giving him worrying looks in between, she had also to concentrate on the road because they still hadn't left these creatures behind. In the worst case, they could completely block their way with the accumulated weight of their wrecked and bloody bodies.

Bww

Bww

Bw-"Yes?"

"Are you okay?"

"Yes. Mazaki was faster."

"Good."

Jou hung up, relieved that nothing really serious had happened.

"Can you give me the first aid kit, Mokuba?"

"Sure."

The boy sounded as if he had to recover from the sudden and intense stress of having to witness his brother being in such a close conflict with what could have been his death.

"Thanks."

Having a certain routine with taking care of his own wounds, Seto easily picked all he needed out of the box, and fixed his foot with the bandaging and his heavy shoe. It was a mistery to him. How could he sprain his ankle with these shoes? It was their duty to prevent that kind of injuries after all!

"Thank you, by the way."

His voice was now calm and collected again. Wow, what a fast recovery from the almost zombie 'threesome'...

Anzu only nodded with a smile that told him it was logical for her to act that way.

"Is it better with the fixing?"

"Yes.."

"Are those working shoes?"

"Yes."

She noticed him shifting in a more comfortable position, probably ready to finally sleep. Anzu decided to leave him alone, since she had already sensed, by his very short one worded answers, that he was in no state to communicate normally. Already before the surprise attack he had looked like he was about to collapse and fall over instantly. The sudden adrenaline and the fast coming down was perhaps the last and definitive drop. Seto was out in no time.

The two groups were in the middle of the road as the sun started to announce the night by slowly going down. Driving through the night did not sound like a good idea. Even though the Humvees's lights had an imressive reach, the risk of getting into a horde of wanderers was way too high.

Anzu was surprised that the CEO didn't move an inch as she fumbled the slim phone out of his left pocket. She already had prepared herself to get a large and colorful list of insults thrown at her for touching him like that and being a horny perv.

This time it was Jou's turn to answer the call.

"Hey, Jou!"

"Hey Anzu! Are you okay over there?"

"I'm tired from the driving. I think we should look out for a place to stay at during the night. I'm hungry, and Kaiba and the two cuties over here are sleeping like babies."

"Oh, I'm hungry too. Follow me?"

"To the end of the world."

"*lol* Alright, see ya then."

"Bye."

A place for the night was soon found, and even though it was in the middle of the road, it didn't look like they would have to be afraid of anyone, or anything.

Seto's mood wasn't exactly better since he felt the vehicle coming to a halt. Somehow, the feeling of a moving car was the only possibility for him to get some rest.

_'Probably because of Mazaki's soft driving style. Though I have to admit I don't know how she manages with a Humvee...'_

"Man, Kaiba, a bit clumsy today, aren't we?"

Jou stated, grinning at Seto while stretching his back. The blue-eyed didn't exactly have the nerve for such useless teasing attempts.

"Fuck you." He had neither force, nor will to get into a discussion, but the rude answer had automatically pushed its way out of that big mouth of his. Waiting for the verbal consequences, he turned around to open the trunk, but surprisingly, nothing came. The reason was unknown, until he saw Anzu talking to the blonde, and by the way her head was shaking 'no', Seto could tell she was the one keeping the tranquililty.

The hypnotizing movements of the large fire in the middle of the circle were all it needed to distract Seto and to take his thoughts where not even he was sure what they where about. It was the compfortable luxury of a small black out. A trance, caused by the sight of the flame's restless and intense dance.

"I miss her..."

Jou got all of their attention. The sad face he made was understandable. He did witness his sister's death, after all. Seto had to refrain himself from frowning, and giving his comments. The wench had been the reason for their unwanted trip, and Isono's death. The man had been one of the best bodyguards in Japan, and his experience would have been more than useful in the environement they were forced to live in right then.

* * *

It was around ten o' clock in the morning as they finally reached the area. Even if the thought of a safe place to stay at was a true relief, a few doubts were justified, and soon to be confirmed...

"Why the heck are there people hanging on gallows?!" Jou shouted at what he saw. Seto immediately recognized what was happening as soon as he took one more look through his own rifle's scope.

The people in there were in a bad shape, that was for sure. Undernourished, pale, wearing clothes that were dirty, and partially ripped up. None of the men, women, and children looked happy to be there, with the rude looking, uniformed and armed men.

"Corrupt military, huh?" Seto mumbled to himself as he continued watching. Those guys were obviously having a great time while pestering and pushing the disarmed and weak people around.

"Hey, Kaiba, can you see that?"

"Hm? Where?"

"Right at the entrance!"

The blue-eyed hastly changed his sight direction, and saw the same wrong image. Before the two men could continue molesting the woman, two loud shots rang through the air and spread their brain masses on the floor. Unfortunately, the noise made the enemies in the different green tones notice from where the attack came.

"Okay, let's go!"

As Jou and Seto, almost panic-stricken and well aware of their help's consequences, hastly made the group get into the cars so that the escape was guaranteed, the sound of yelling men, and starting cars reached their ears.

"Mazaki, hold the steering wheel! Mokuba, Michelle, get down!" Mokuba's older brother pratically yelled while getting up, and quickly loading the M16 in his hands.

Anzu had absolutely no choice but to do what Seto told her to, since he was already halfway leaning out of the window frame, shooting back as exactly as he could. All he needed to hit was a simple several failures, and almost shooting wounds, he finally managed to make the first car completely stop. But there was a second one, and Seto's aggressive defense didn't seem to act deterrent.

The sudden, and intense pain that went through his right arm let Seto cry out in pain, making Mokuba instantly getting up from his cover.

"Get down, mokuba!"

He had been taught to continue working perfectly, no matter what pain he felt, and how bad it was.

Finally, the second following car came to a forced halt. That was no reason to stop, actually it was the perfect time to disappear from the dangerous area.

"Seto, are you okay?!" Mokuba and Michelle leaned forward, clearly in panic, and convinced that there was a bullet stuck in right Seto's arm.

"It's only a graze. Sit down and put your seat belts on." It was more a groan than anything else. The CEO had a tendence to react aggressively to pain, as everyone already noticed in the mansion when Shizuka had kicked him where it hurt.

"Kaiba, we should stop to take a look at that!" Anzu was almost panicking at the sight of the blood soaked, back sleeve.

"Mazaki, not now."

Of course, his entire right arm was burning like hell, but there was no need to make a drama out of it and to scare both kids any more. Besides, the only thought of Anzu pushing him around again was enough to stress him even more.

"Not right now, but in a few minutes! Kaiba-" She was interrupted.

"There's no time for that, Mazaki! I know what I'm doing!"

The young woman decided to give in, since she knew Seto was right. Those people were still behind them, and probably still would be, especially after the shooting. But why couldn't Seto see that he could bleed to death if the wound wasn't properly taken care of? Anzu knew he had always known what to do in such cases of danger, but at what cost?

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**_Thank you for the interest! My next update should come soon!_**

**_Take care,-Emi;)_**


	18. 18 An Old Friend

**It's time to du du du du-UPDATE!**

**Sedra; I know Dante looks ugly at first, but you shouldn't worry though, it's really awesome. Trust me, I own dmc 1,2,3,4, and 5 (the newest). The ps3 HD collection and everything related to the dmc concept, and I'm also very picky. I've been thinking about buying the new game or not due to the black hair, my husband told me it may be worth trying out, and he was right. Damn, he was soooo right. I'm not gonna spoil anything, but you won't have to worry about his hair color for too long. The plot also explains why he looks so different. If you have any other questions, feel free to PM me! Oh, and thank you very much for the reviews :)**

**Kex3; You're right, the best way to get into a relationship is by not even trying. (Creepy, that's exactly how I got to know my cutie XD)**

**xSapphirexRosesxFanx; Let's see if they'll find anything ;)**

**Heeey Sinrya Mangafn! Glad you're back, hun! How are you doing?**

**Thank you very very much for the support! Here's chapter 18!**

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-gi-oh! I'm not gaining anything by posting this! I just own the plot.**_

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**Chapter 18: An Old Friend**

"Hey, look at this!"

Jou shouted happily, and pointed at the trailers positioned in front of a small building in the middle of nowhere. Yugi and the rest of the passengers in the car were instantly highly impressed and happy by the thought of finally be able to lay down to sleep and to take a shower.

In that moment, Seto was trying to concentrate on just functioning and to ignore the stinging pain that came from the graze he got on his right upper arm. He had to take his left hand off the wound to fumble the ringing phone out of his pant's pocket. His movements constantly followed by the worried Anzu. Countless times had she tried to make him switch places and to let her drive, but without success. All he said was that they couldn't affrod to stop and to let those lunatics catch up.

"What?"

"Follow me, there's a trailer shop!"

"Okay."

Keeping his choice of words short because he really didn't feel like talking any more than necessary, Seto hung up. The shock of his previous mistake that could have cost him his life was still making him more than furious at himself.

"Kaiba, did you hear me?"

"Hm?" Was the clear answer she got from the mentally absent looking driver.

"Did he say something about trailers?" Anzu asked, full of hope.

A quick nod followed, and she already lost the small trace of attention that was hers for a second.

The place with the desired mobile accommodations were soon reached, but Seto did all but getting out of the driver's seat as everyone else was already outside. The nausea was making it impossible for him for take his head off his supporting crossed arms that were laying on the steering wheel. Any movement would cause him to feel more sick, and to eventually throw up. And throwing up was one of the things that were very high on Kaiba Seto's 'hate list'. The heavy lack of sleep was making him feel cold, causing him to shake visibly. Which meant movement. It wasn't much, but it disturbed his concentration on keeping his stomach's content where it belonged a lot.

_'All I need is a small break...'_

Unfortunately for his desperately needed off time, Seto was soon confronted with Anzu, who suddenly appeared in front of his opened window, which he had opened while driving to get some air. Not even the thought of a sudden attack by some roamers crossed his mind in that moment.

"Kaiba, are you alright?"

Anzu had been inside the trailers, where the rest of the others, including Mokuba and Michelle were checking their new and compfortable looking transportable homes. Seto's absence was shortly noticed by her, and she couldn't do anything else but to worry. As three seconds with no answer passed, she carefully laid a hand on his shoulder, and slightly shook it. Maybe he was asleep?

"Stop shaking me..."

He made no effort to lift his head to look at her. With her hand still on his shoulder, it didn't take long for her to notice he was already shaking, and by the way he didn't care about how weakly he looked in front of her, she could tell he was in a bad shape.

"Hey, Anzu! What's wrong?"

Jou soon had found out how to fasten their new trailers to the cars, so the time that was needed to do so was short. He didn't notice that Seto had been hurt while defending them during the hot pursuit. So, the surprise about the brunette looking that bad, was big.

"What happened? Kaiba, are you okay?"

Jou asked, not being used to see Seto behaving like that. Anzu started explaining, since she knew very well how Mokuba's brother would answer; not at all.

"He's got a graze from the shooting. I don't know if you've noticed, but he managed to shoot their tires."

"Big brother?"

Soon, all of them were forming a circle in front of the already annoyed Seto. Why did they make a huge scene out of every little shit? He was just not feeling well, that was all!

He heard Mokuba opening the door to the passenger seat, probably to take a closer look. It was fully understandable that the boy worried that much, his older brother knew, but the others could care less about him. It confused him, and confusion was something he hated.

"Seto, you're full of blood!"

"I know."

He still hadn't moved an inch. He had realized how weak he was showing himself in front of everyone else, and there was no bloody way they would get the chance of seeing him like that any second longer. It was easier said than done.

"Guys, we should probably get into the cars, just in case we get surprised again."

Anzu knew the complicated blue-eyed a bit after passing time with him, and she knew he wouldn't get up until there weren't so many eyes fixed on him.

"Anzu's right, let's go guys." Jou also had been afraid of being attacked by surprise, so the idea of getting ready to flee was not bad at all. In the meantime, Mokuba had left the passenger seat to let Anzu sit next to his brother who finally had found the strenght and the courage to lean back. The first thing he saw was the first aid box in Anzu's hands.

"We need to clean that wound before continuing."

After slight shrug from his side, she started taking out the needed material. He hissed through his teeth as she pressed the clothe, soaked with disinfecting liquid, on the delicate place.

"A warning would have been nice..."

"Sorry. At least it's not that deep. Maybe five millimeters, or so."

"Hm."

While Anzu was fixing the bandage, Seto answered the call he got from Jou.

"Yes?"

"Are you okay?"

"I am."

"Where do you think should we go to now?"

"To the mountains. I don't think there's anyone or anything dangerous."

"Sounds perfect! But we should just get a few things before."

"Like?"

Seto noticed his brain started protesting against every form of work.

"Some more clothes, water, food and so on and so forth."

"Hm, we should."

"So, to the next shopping center?"

"Yes, we should be damn careful. Most people probably locked themselves in there."

"You watched too many zombie movies, you know?"

"Perhaps."

Jou laughed out loud at the answer he got.

"We should look out for the next center."

"Alright."

After hanging up, Seto turned around to tell Anzu what he and Jou had talked about.

"I heard it. We definetly need these things. Are you strong enough to switch places now?"

"I think so."

Both opened their doors and got out. It didn't went as smoothly as usual for Seto but he still reached the target. His body felt like a total wreck.

"Mokuba and Michelle are sleeping." Anzu whispered as she started driving behind Jou. Seto nodded and took a quick look at both kids.

"They'll need to take a few games for themselves too. All they had was left in the mansion."

"That would be good. Boredom is dangerous, especially while living through such a horror. They wouldn't be able to think of anything else."

The surprise got him as he listened to her talking.

"What?"

"Nothing, I just didn't think you'd manage to think of such details."

"Oh, thank you, asshole!"

"You're welcome."

Anzu should have known that such an answer would follow. Just as she thought of a comeback, Seto's phone started ringing again.

"What?"

"There! That's Mai!"

"Who?"

"Mai Kujaku! She's walking on the road!"

Anzu jumped in her seat as she heard the blonde woman's name.

"Mai! Really?"

Seto nodded, but had a weird feeling in the stomach.

"Be careful, we don't know in what state she is."

Mai had been walking for so long, she didn't even know for how many time, and how far she'd managed to get. Her love for high shoes had always been her feet's worst nightmare, and now, after all the runing and walking, no more tolerated. The purple, 10 cm high expensive brand high heels were already being carried by her tired hands for a very long time. It really was true, those things were clearly not designed for comfort. Her feet were all bruised, and almost bleeding. It felt as if they were threatening to fall of sonner or later. At least that's what they felt like. She didn't know if she should be happy to see the two heavy cars driving towards her. Of course, that meant no more walking, and contact with the living again, the only question was if they were friends or enemies. The latter seemed to push itself to the front as they came faster and faster, until she decided it would be better to walk away.

She changed her mind as soon as she heard too familiar voices calling out her name. Mai cried out in joy and ran towards Jou, who was also running towards her. They were soon on the floor because of the stormy embrace.

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Reviews Are Candy... And I looove them...Thank you!


	19. 19 The Addicts

_**Hey guys!**_

_**Here I am with chapter 19! Enjoy!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-gi-oh! I'm not gaining anything by posting this! I just own the plot.**_

_**AN: I'm listening to Black Sabbath's 'Paranoid' to this, I just noticed the irony...Good song by the way, and don't forget; I do not own it!**_

_**Oh yes, and I also do NOT own Angry Birds!**_

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**Chapter 19: The Addicts**

An almost too tight hug was something all of them were now getting from the euphoric Mai. The friends she saw way too rarely were the last persons she'd expected to see out here, so far away from Domino City. And most of all; still living!

"Oh my gosh, even the Kaibas are here!"

The woman's voice was so high pitched, that the words coming out of her mouth were hardly understandable.

Seto had seen where this was leading to, and was already waving his hands no, desperately trying to convey that he wanted no hug, but it was no use to try and back away. Not with his injured ankle. Physical contact with others was something he principally avoided, but this time Seto felt kind of helpless. The blonde in the purple clothes threw her arms around his neck, and pressed her whole body weight against him. Inclusively her boobs...Surely filled with silicone, at least that's how they felt.

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**_(Mai; My breasts are not fake! -Riiiiight Tristan: I don't believe you! -LK, you're brilliant!)_**

* * *

As she let go off him and fully dedicated her attention to Mokuba, who was also visibly happy to see one of his friends again, Seto's ankle reminded him of the sudden additional, and unwelcome weight.

"Aw, and who are you, cutie?"

Michelle's shyness had started to fade away by the sight of how the woman she had never seen in her life greeted the ones that once saved her.

"I'm Michelle."

The girl held out her right hand, which Mai happily shook.

"And I'm Mai. It's nice to meet you! How old are you, Michelle?"

"I'm 6."

"She was in a small market in Domino stuck with a few idiots who wanted to kill us."

Jou answered the question that would probably follow.

"Oh, okay. You mean...you have something to eat?"

"Uh, sure."

"I've had nothing for about two days, I'm starving!"

As if to make the clichée complete, Mai's stomach decided to growl in confirmation. After a small laughing fit, the others realized they were also quite hungry.

"Guys, do you think it's alright for us to stay here during the night?" Yugi asked, taking a quick look at the place they stopped at so promptly.

Seto and Jou, the unofficial leaders also started to inspect their surroundings by taking a look around in the darkness with their flashlight's support.

"We're in a pastoral region. I doubt there is anyone, or anything but us here."

Jou nodded in confirmation, and told the others to prepare for staying there for the night. Fully in disbelief, Mai watched as both 'rivals' started walking around, well, limping in Kaiba's case, but sill; together. The verbal communication also didn't seem to fail like before.

"Hey Anzu, is there something I missed?"

Anzu looked up from the cans she was getting out of the back of the car, and wondered why Mai seemed so intrigued?

"What do you mean?"

"Uh, Kaiba and Jou...What's wrong with them? They're talking, and I see no fist fight..."

"Nothing. I guess they were tired of pestering each other. We passed three weeks at Kaiba''s mansion, that's when they started getting along."

"Wow, that's impressive. Since when are you on the road anyway? And why?"

"Well, I don't know if you noticed, but Shizuka is missing."

Mai looked up from the fire Yugi and Hanasaki had started a few seconds ago.

"Oh...Why? And where are Honda, Ryu...Miho...and Otogi?" The bare thought of her forgetting to ask after the missing friends made her stomach flip in bad conscience.

Anzu sighed heavily as her mind wandered to the awful scenes from back then, and held back the tears that started forming in the corner of her eyes.

"They died shortly after we got out of school. As for Shizuka...Well, she wanted her and Jou's dad to survive with us, but the man was a threat. I guess it got too much for her. She became paranoid. Kaiba dozed off sometime during the night, and well, that gave her the opportunity to steal a hand grenade from him. Since he and Jou killed her dad to defend us, she thought of paying us back by destroying the gate. We had to flee, that was about two days ago."

"Oh God, I-"

"We should stop talking abot that, Jou's still very distraught because of that."

"I understand."

The nice side detail about canned food was definetly the fact that it was easily and fastly made, so that their empty stomaches wouldn't need to wait for another eternity. As if they were a group of young persons that were only enjoying a bit of freedom in the nature, they were siting around the fire, to not get cold, and talking.

"So, Kaiba, how come you had so many weapons at home?"

That question had formed inside Mai's head as she helped Anzu getting the food out. Of course a handgun was nothing special to see, but such an amount of huge rifles was just another dimension...Seto was siting behind Mokuba and Michelle, in order to have some distance from the very communicative middle. Small talk was just not his thing. It was already taxing enough to listen to their clucking...

He stopped his slow chewing and shrugged at them. What was he supposed to say, anyways?"

"I'm careful."

Jou laughed out loud at that answer.

"More like paranoid!"

Awaiting a small fight due to Jou's answer, all eyes moved to Seto who wasn't even looking at them. His mind seemed to be anywhere else than right here with them as he continued to listlessy poke his food with the fork in his right hand.

"Yea, that too."

The relaxed conversation time while and after eating did not last for long. This whole getting-chased thing was more than tiring, and sleeping was something most of them were looking forward to, since there were compfortable looking beds waiting for them in the trailers.

The only one remaining on his place was Seto, who looked more tired than the rest of them. All together.

"Hey Kaiba, are you looking out again?" Jou was starting to get worried. The sleeping behaviour of the older Kaiba was something he never really noticed before. Only since they had started talking in a respectful tone to each other. The dark circles under his eyes, the tired and absent looking glance, the lazyness when nothing special was happening. He could go on with those examples.

"Yea."

"Wouldn't you rather try to sleep?"

Okay, why did Jou actually care about this?

"Nah, I can't. Remember, I'm the paranoid."

Not even Seto's slight smirk could convince Jou to take that on the light shoulder.

"Right. Wake me up to switch places."

"Probably won't happen, but okay."

After a quick nod at each other, Jou also followed the rest of the others inside, to get the well deserved sleep.

The loneliness seemed to stay glued to him like an unwanted ugly piece of gum under his shoe, yet it was a state he was used to. Sure, Mokuba was there, but not always. The boy had an own life Seto would hate to disturb with his personal issues. It was a pro-contra thing.

He liked being only with himself, with no one bothering the hell out of him because of a mistake that was made at the company, or the cheap flirt attempts from the uggly gold diggers that gave away too many details from their, often ridiculously large cutout.

The negative arguments were deciding for his partial dislike. All alone, he couldn't control his drifting thoughts that often made his depressions even worse then they already were. That was the contra.

There was no one to talk about his doubts, fears, self-destructing and mostly suicidal thoughts, his fears of loss, the constant pressure of defending his company, himself and Mokuba. Not to forget the weird, and too realistic nightmares that oh so lovely woke him up in the middle of his already short nights. Not even Rachel, the second most trusted person in his life would get to know that much. Why should he talk? All it did was to bring back those awful times, and to even worsen his conditon. Rachel would make him stop working, and to rest anyway...

And now the additional shaking left lower arm. Definetly a symptome for stress. As if he didn't already know...

Each time there was a small trace of happiness in which his life seemed to be somwehat acceptable, the floor underneath his feet would be ripped away, making him fall deeply and hit the hard ground of the sad and cold reality.

He was a mental wreck, and he knew who he could thank for that one...

If it wasn't for his incredible will to fuck them all back, to not devastate Mokuba with his death, and to do the contrary than Gozaburo predicted, to not bear the immense humiliations and pain he made Seto go through, he would have released himself to not suffer anymore.

People thought he was made of ice, and didn't think of anything else beside his oh so precious company and the immense amout of money on his bank account.

None of them knew what emotional disaster reigned in his head, and that he felt way more than these ignorant fools who simply judged him by how wealthy he was, thought. Too fucked up to care anymore. That's what he was, plain and simple, yet incredibly knotted and complicated.

_'I better distract myself before it gets worse.'_

His phone would do the work. After entering the code to unblock it, he touched the screen to open his favourite game. With the ridiculous amount of liberty he was 'granted 'with as the CEO of a gaming company, there wasn't any much free time at his disposition, so doing such banal things, as much as he enjoyed them, was a rather rare happening.

_'Hm, at least I could entertain myself at the boring conferences. Idiots trying to tell me what I already knew...'_ (AN: Just imagine, Kaiba Seto playing angry birds during an 'important' conference...)

"Hey there."

"O.o' *Point gun at whoever dared to scare him like that*"

"O-kay, it's only me, put that down please ^^'"

With a sigh of frustration, Seto stopped pointing at her, and laid the rifle down while Anzu made herself comfortable next to him; to his dislike.

Anzu herself knew exactly why she often spend time with Seto. Most of the time, whenever they were alone, he would act semi-social and treat her well. And he definetly needed someone else beside Mokuba. Not only Jou had noticed his bad shape during the past few days.

"What are you doing?"

A quick glance at his phone astonished her.

"I never thought you'd be the one to play that game. I like it!"

Sensing that the proximity between them made him visibly uncompfortable, she leaned back and kept an accurate distance.

"It's addicting." Were the only words he spoke as he let the next bird fly towards the evil, egg stealing pigs.

"Are you the creator?"

"No, but I sponsored them. I'm glad I'm not, it wouldn't be challenging anymore." Wow, two whole sentence this time. There was some effort!

"You're trying to get three stars at each level, right?"

"Yea. That one sucks, really."

"Can I try?"

"Mh, sure."

The slim and expensive phone was a pleasant change from hers, which looked rather pathetic in comparison to this model. That was also the reason she never got to download the entertaining game. As ever, money seemed to represent only a small detail for Kaiba Seto.

"Hah, I made it!"

"Not bad. There, the next level."

They continued like that for about two hours. Whenever one of them failed, the phone was given to the other for a try. To Seto's surprise it happened during a silent understanding. Of course, all of us know what phones, laptops, or whatever electronic gadgets need to function. Electricity, and in their case, the main energy source, the sun, was missing. Now that the battery was dead, there was nothing to keep Anzu quiet, and there was actually a good reason for it. Until now, his arm had been quiet due to the intense concentration he needed to play, but now, the shaking had started again. Absolutely against his will. Not even trying to force it down with his right hand was enough.

"Are you cold?"

_'Great...A speech about my health...Just what I need right now.'_

It wouldn't be logical to tremble at only one spot if he were cold. He hoped shaking his head no as an answer would be enough. Anzu cared about everyone, and endless questions would follow.

"Is something wrong?"

The obvious look he gave her made her notice her absurd question. Just everything was wrong.

"Sorry, I mean your arm. Since when are you shaking like that?"

"A week or two. Don't know."

"Does it hurt?"

"No."

She hated his plain and short answers...

"Let me see."

Yeah, sure...

"You shouldn't care that much, you know?"

That kind of questions always threw Anzu offguard, and kind of insulted her.

"And why not?"

"Because I don't give a fuck. I don't want any pity."

"Well you should! I care, and if you would trust me, or anyone else, you would start caring too."

"As far as I know, the trust you want me to invest was always the source of each disappointment until now."

"Yet you trust me and my friends."

"To a certain degree. That doesn't mean I need to fully join you. I only communicate enough to keep us alive."

Anzu sighed, and saw no other otion but to tell him what she was assuming the whole time.

"I think you're scared."

Seto chuckled.

"You know, when the dead start walking around, killing and going all cannibal on people, I think it's acceptable to be scared a bit."

"I'm not talking about that. You're afraid of letting people getting close to you."

Again a chuckle, this time it sounded malicious, not amused like the last one.

"You sound like the therapist I was forced to go to after Gozaburo's death. That was what he said after he gave up getting at least something out of me."

"I don't need to be a therapist to see the obvious."

He earned a serious 'you-know-I'm-right' look. The one he always depised.

"My real problem-Do you think my real problem right now is to get close to anyone?"

Before she could answer, Seto laughed out loud and streched his right leg out to be more compfortable.

"Sure, why not? It's not that I have to keep my brother safe, and to prevent you dweebs from killing yourseves with your absurd ideas. It's not that I probably lost my existence in less than a single day. I don't know if we'll live through the next hours, or have enough food, petrol, ammo, water, a safe place to sleep...I know, these are trivial matters in comparison to the fear of getting close to anyone. Thank you for the daily bullshit speech."

With that, he laid down on his back, with his arms crossed behind his head. Originally, he thought about going away, but since his ankle decided to be an asshole again, there was no option left.

"I'm sorry, you're right. I haven't thought about that."

Anzu also laid back, making sure to keep the distance. Seto was surprised at the sentences that came out of her mouth, but he wouldn't dare to ask why she thought to.

"Stupid phone..." He gave a disappointed sigh.

"Huh?"

"The level we didn't finish."

"Oh, yea, that sucks. I think I have now officially joined the gaming addict club..."

With that being said, he offered her his right hand, which she shook with a puzzled look.

"Welcome to the official angry birds addicts."

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**Alright! Please tell me what you think!**

**Thank you very much!**

**Greets, Emi;)**


	20. 20 Friendly Dialogues

_**Hey there! We've reached chapter 20!**_

_**Synria Mangafn, thank you very much for the lovely review! Yea, Angry Birds is a damn addictive game XD And don't worry about Mai hugging Seto. She was only very happy to meet them;)**_

_**I've been working a lot on my blue-prints, and I like the plot's development so far.**_

_**As usual, work's been a killer, and I started another project which may even get me some cash! Let's see!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-gi-oh! I'm not gaining anything by posting this! I just own the plot.**_

* * *

**Chapter 20. Friendly Dialogues**

The next morning came soon. Too soon for Anzu's liking. She had managed to doze off sometime during the night, and didn't even realize it until the sun started appearing, and informing everyone of the starting day.

"Oh my gosh, we didn't look out!" In an instant, the woman sat up, with eyes as wide as saucers, and hands tugging on the CEO's left arm sleeve. Said one eyed her as if she was getting insane.

"I did."

Anzu blinked,realizing where she had her hands before quickly standing up, and straightening her aching back by streching her arms up.

"You mean you didn't sleep at all, again?"

All Seto did was to shake his nead no. Why should he say any more than that? Right as she wanted to answer, someone stepped out of one of the trailers. Sugoroku looked outrageously fresh, and talkative, which was enough to give Seto another intense wave of headaches.

"How did you sleep?"

Anzu was almost ashamed for her mistake. The last thing she wanted was them to think of her being irresponsible, and lazy enough to take a threat against their lifes on the light shoulder.

"I kind of accidentally dozed off, so not really well. We're lucky Kaiba looked out."

Sugoroku's gaze switched to Seto, who was now busy with connecting his phone so that it could charge with solar energy.

"Did you sleep at all?"

_'There it goes, I hope he doesn't notice my arm.'_

By the way Yugi's grandpa was eyeing him, Seto could tell what he would come up with. Yes, he had seen them; the dark circles under his tired eyes that were the first sign of that unhealthy sleeping behaviour of his.

Sugoroku never liked the CEO, in fact, he always wanted to keep the encounters with him to a minimum. Seto's civil behaviour during the past few weeks was something he greatly appreciated.

"For how long are you awake now?"

"64 hours, or so. I slept a bit while Mazaki drove yesterday." Seto shrugged, as if it was the most normal thing on earth-Well it was for him. What could he do if he could simply not relax? Ask someone to hit him on the head to knock him out?

"What?! That's not enough, you'll break down sometime."

"No, I won't."

"But of course you will, it's just a matter of time!"

"Listen, I've been doing this for five years, leave it for me to know where my limits are. Remember what happened the last time I slept?"

"Yes, but that kind of danger doesn't exist anymore! None of us is going to repeat such a thing!"

Seto was not used to get pissed at that high level. Not even as a CEO. It was another form of stress he wasn't used to. No one dared to force their crappy and useless opinions into his head because they exactly knew what consequences would follow. No one wanted to see an annoyed Kaiba Seto, after all.

Before the old man could go on with his preaching, Mai had decided to make her great entrance by loudly pushing the door open while yawning deliciously.

"Good morning everyone!"

She walked towards them, yawned once again and streched herself at the same time. The noise she made had caused the rest of the group to wake up and to get out too.

With that, Seto noticed his arm was shaking even more. It was probably his habit of being a misanthrope. And the day just had started...

Jou, being the one to instantly feel hungry after waking up, decided to obey his growling stomach, also known as 'the Boss'.

"Who's for breakfast?"

More than a few hands were lifted. A bit of energy to start the day didn't sound wrong at all.

While Yugi, Jou and Hanasaki went to collect some wood to start the fire anew, Seto's thought were split. He was glad Jou didn't ask him to come and help due to his still hurting ankle, but on the other side he would have to continue to sit here, with the 'all-knowing-Muto'. Oh yeah, and the loud mouthed Mai...

"Morning big brother..."

Judging by the way they were still yawning and rubbing their eyes, Mokuba and Michelle were certainly not fit enough to start the day.

"Morning. How did you two sleep?"

"It was okay, though the nightmares were not really helpful. But Michelle woke me up."

Seto was hoping that Mokuba's presence would dim the shaking a bit, but he was wrong there. Luckily both kids started to talk about different topics that would distract them. It was enough that Anzu knew of his little problem. No need to make big shit out of small shit. They couldn't do anything for him in any way.

Fighting against the urge to fall asleep right on the spot, Seto took out a caramel lolly out of the side pocket next to his left knee.

Twenty minutes passed until they were fully ready to continue to their next destination. With mixed feelings, Seto opened the door to the driver's seat, only to get surprised by Anzu banging it closed.

"Are you serious?"

"Huh?" Okay, since when was he that slow?

"There's no way you're driving. Not in that state." She fortifyed her point by letting both of her hands rest on her hips. Maybe she was right. No, Seto knew she was right. He needed to rest, badly.

* * *

After two full hours later, in which Seto didn't notice a single thing around himself, they finally found a shopping center that probably contained everything they needed.

Seto's mood wasn't the best while he and the others prepared themselves for the approaching fights against the unknown number of monsters.

He noticed his little brother and Michelle had nothing to defend themselves in the worst case, and there was no way in hell he would let them here, all alone on the outside with no one to protect them. Also, every single person was needed to transport the countless things they would have to collect.

Sugoroku and Anzu had started protesting as Michelle and Mokuba got a special introduction to handguns and self-defense back then at the mansion.

Did it matter that they were still kids? No! If there accidentally was no one around to help them once, how should they defend themselves from the clearly stronger enemies? Having a group of adults around as a guaranteed protection should not be taken for granted.

"Mokuba, Michelle, take your guns." The tone in his voice transmitted the message; he wanted no discussion. End of the line.

The signal telling the group to start getting concentrated on the emergency door that was to be opened soon, was the telescopic truncheon Seto jerked open.

That instrument always caused a shiver to sneak it's way down their spines. No, it wasn't only that, it was more the blatant brutality, and some traces of fun it's owner showed while using it.

The leading ones were, as always, Jou and Seto. Hanasaki and Yugi right behind them, which both were very glad to be. Mai, Anzu and Sugoroku were looking at the way they came from to prevent any surprise attacks from behind. The core was formed by Mokuba and Michelle, who didn't appreciate the position that blocked their sight on the eventual encounters they had no doubts would come.

Once the huge emergency doors closed with some noise, it's echo was all that was heard for a very short time. The sound of all possiblle things hitting the ground, hissings, moans and unthinkable cries of hunger soon reached the ears of the paranoid group, whose members were panically looking at any possible directions to be ready.

That's when they appeared from nowhere, and ironically, at the same time. From the front, and the sides of the first and second floor.

"Mazaki, Kujaku, take the sides!"

Seto pratically yelled while he and Jou stormed towards the formed front that was almost off the stairs. Some of them lost their balance and fell over, breaking a few bones in the process. The sound was all but a pleasant one, and the worst part of it was that they actually weren't to be stopped by such minor handicaps, and slowly stood up.

While Jou was busy with landing one headshot after the other, Seto was fully using the energy he got from the nap he took while Anzu drove to smash some heads. Even if he hated the fact that he had let her push him around, he was still glad she did so. Fully occupied with the attack, Seto turned to his left to demolish the next enemies skulls. Just then, Jou accidentally stumbled and bumped into the older Kaiba's back, making him jump in surprise. Due to the monsters that were surrounding them, Seto thought he was being attacked by one, so in order to at least make himself some space, he did one of the old tricks and gave a heavy kick in in the blonde's torso. Jou's answer was to punch him square in the face as soon as he saw the opportunity to do so.

Hanasaki had been nervously looking around, and eventually shot the one or another bullet, but otherwise he was almost petrifyed.

"Uh, what are they doing now?"

He had been the first one to notice the weird result of a dumb misunderstanding, and his now pointed finger made the others notice the weird, and almost funny display.

"STOP FIGHTING AGAINST EACH OTHER, YOU IDIOTS!"

Since both Seto and Jou somehow felt like they were concerned, they turned around to see an angry Mai, who was hectically gesticulating with her arms while yelling at them.

"Turn around, idiots!" Oh right, they were now surrounded by at least six zombies that were totally dreading after their flesh, and euphoric about almost reaching the still living human beings in front of them.

While Jou continued with the handgun, Seto got into some restrictive space problems.

"Seto!"

Mokuba's shout was fully understandable, and justified but Seto already saw it coming. A simple kick in the torso would cause the ghoul in front of him to stumble back, and to grant him with enough space to fight back those that were approaching from the left and the right side as decently as possible. At least that's what the blue-eyed man thought his spontaneously overthought plan was supposed to cause. Wanting to start with the first step, Seto lifted his right leg, and kicked the dead woman into the torso, fully using the advantage of his body weight to push her, or 'it', whatever it was, farther away from himself. What he never would have expected to even be possible happened exactly in that moment; His foot was stuck. In that walking, and stinking disgrace's torso...

That's where the panic he had successfully fought against until now almost took over, but not enough to stop his brain from coming up with the next ideas. The telescopic truncheon that had been in his right hand until that moment hit the floor, giving space for the next, more effective weapons.

While fighting to keep his balance, Seto's hands moved to his back, to grasp the two guns in the special holster that was tied to his belt. Since the corpse in which his foot had been welcomed to stay inside two seconds ago was struggling the most to take a bite, it was the first to get it's brain splattered across the room.

Finally, with the monster's weight falling down to the floor, Seto no longer had that troubling balance handicap, and could dedicate his attention towards those on his sides.

The two nearest turned out to come from the left, so, with his body turned to the same direction, the man with his foot still stuck in the corpse lying on the floor, managed to shoot both their heads off in the same time.

The next targets for his bullets came from the right. With a cruel smirk on his lips, Seto turned around, and placed the Glock 19's peak into the ghoul's mouth before shooting repeatedly, and hitting other agressor's heads in the process.

"Kaiba, I need Ammo!"

Seto's gaze hastly wandered to Jou's general direction as he fumbled the magazine out of the side pocket he kept the ammo in. Instead of catching the small, but heavy object filled with bullets that were ready to be shot, Jou let it slip through his hand, and let it land on his head.

"OW! You throw like a woman!" The blonde quickly reloaded, and supported Seto with shooting some head's contents away.

"You are one!"

"Fuck you, Kaiba!"

As they finished giving the last zombies their second and last death, Yugi and the others had nothing better to do than to watch the still fighting team insulting, but also protecting each other.

The last body hit the ground, the last busted head spilled it's content on the floor...Heavy silence filled the huge room for a few seconds. At least until two different voices started groaning and moaning. Seto had a hand on the left side of his face, while Jou doubled over and held his hurting stomach.

"Kaiba, are you in pain?"

"Kind of, yea..."

Jou slightly patted the CEO on the shoulder.

"Good, we're even then."

"Stop touching me, I'm not gay."

"You could have fooled me..."

"Oh God, they're even continuing!" Mai threw her arms up in the air and walked towards the two.

"I wonder how men manage to survive, really..."

"At least I'm not blonde..."

"Shaddup, Kaiba!" Came from both Mai and Jou as an answer.

* * *

**_I guess at least now you understand this chapter's title ;P_**

**_Please review guys! Don't forget the criticism!_**

**_Thank you!-Emi:)_**


	21. 21 Hard Core Shopping

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-gi-oh! I'm not gaining anything by posting this! I just own the plot.**_

* * *

**Chapter 21: Hard Core Shopping**

Since the massive slaughtering they did, the center seemed to be as empty as it could get. Well, except for the bodies laying on the ground everywhere.

"Seriously, how can you-" Sugoroku stopped talking to cautiously avoid the innards in blood soup on the floor. The body that once contained them in its insides was laying a few meters away, according to the trail of blood...

"-start fighting in such a situation?"

"There's nothing we can do, Sugoroku, it's their undying love for each other..."

Mai spoke with her sarcasm filled voice while she shrugged.

She earned a very nasty death glare from Jou and Seto, the 'lovers' who were busy with cracking two shopping carts open, and gave them to Hanasaki and Mokuba to push.

The older Kaiba wouldn't let that pass.

"Hm, you're just jealous."

That was sooo typical. Throw a dirty, sarcasm filled phrase at him, and an even nastyer answer would follow.

"Seto, can I sit inside?"

They all found it extremely cute each time the girl pulled on Seto's sleeve to get his atention. How else should she do so? The girl wouldn't dare to raise her voice in fear of attracting anything evil, and the man was just so freaking tall!

"Sure."

Even though his ankle was killing him from the walking and the fighting, he wouldn't dare to ask for anyone's help. So, with a groan of pain, he lifted Michelle and let her down into the cart. The decision to stay together had been taken fastly, since none of them wanted an accident to happen, and to collect everyone again. Time was something they couldn't affrod to waste in here.

Item after item was grabbed, while they looked out for anything that could possibly be important for the constant travelling.

"I think we have everything." Seto mumbled more to himself than to the others.

"Wait, let's take a few of the big backpacks, that way we'll have free hands to shoot, in any case."

"Hanasaki's right. It's going to get heavy with the clothes." Jou nodded, and walked over to the generously big bags that were originally meant for mountain hiking.

"Whoo! That means shopping!"

Mai happily threw her arms in the air and walked out of the shop with them. Finally, the exciting part would come. At least that whole post-apocalyptic life had its certain qualities. No need to pay for anything!

The first halt was the woman's section, where Anzu and Mai looked through the shelves that were filled with everything a woman's heart desired.

"What do you think, should we take more compfortable stuff?"

"Perhaps. I don't feel like running around in tight jeans...And I want to get rid of that school uniform. Each time I start running in that thing, these zombies or whatever they are, have a nice sight on my panties."

"Oh, don't mention it, my skirt is also too tight to run. My skin's all irritated..."

Both went on and on, talking about things the guys on the outside really didn't want to hear. The pain limit was definetly reached as they started chatting about the problems each woman would get once in the month.

"Ladies, are you done with raping our ears?"

Seto now understood why there were couches in the women's section. It was imaginable how many husbands, fathers, kids or boyfriends had spend their time waiting, waiting and waiting right here where he was laying.

Soon, both Mai and Anzu came out of the changing cabine they were in, and gave him a dirty look.

"He's right, you know? Some things you talked about were very traumatizing..."

Jou stated while standing up, and feigning to feel like puking by opening his mouth and dramatically putting his forefinger in it.

"I think I'll stick with Kaiba and Jou." Yugi's voice corresponded to his face that was kind of pale.

"Men..." Mai sighed and gave her chosen clothes to Hanasaki, who was carrying one of the bags.

The next station should be the children's section, where Mokuba and Michelle would run around and take whatever they wanted, while the others looked out for any potential dangers.

Seto never really had to take care about what Mokuba chose to wear. The boy knew what clothes to take and what fit him. Compared to other children in his age, the boy was very independent and careful with what he did. That was probably the result of Gozaburo's education.

"Hey Kaiba, what about you?" Jou couldn't help but to notice the CEO's empty hands as they walked through the large entrance.

"I'm used to get my clothes elsewhere."

The man knew in which direction he was walking while Jou got the answer to his question. Seriously, did they expect him to cloth himself in a normal store? The billions on his bank accounts should be a small hint...

"A gothic shop? Why's that?"

Jou asked as he looked at the woman's clothes on his left side. If only Mai would try one of these outfits...

"Best quality." Seto answered, while picking several long sleeved shirts. But strangely, no pants.

"Also expensive!" Surogoku had never seen such a high price for a single pair of pants. He was only glad that Yugi had never even thought on spending that much on clothes.

"Hey Kaiba, how about some pants?" Jou asked.

"Not here."

The prices got even worse. The CEO, accoustomed to such exclusivity, went directly for the brands he obviously preferred. Mostly G-Star Raw, and Diesel (A/N: I DO NOT OWN!).

"Hey Kaiba, what about shoes?"

_'Oh woman, you did NOT just ask that...'_

Mai saw the nasty glare he was sending her, and instantly shot her hands up in defense.

"Nono, I mean I can't run away from these things in high heels, my feet are all bruised and hurting. You understand?"

Anzu noticed what her blonde friend meant, and looked down at her own feet. Those school schoes were probably not designed to be chased by the dead either...

"I'll also need a pair..."

"Seto?" He felt someone pulling at his sleeve, and knew who it was before looking down.

"Could we stop at the toy store? All the games we had are back in the mansion."

"Sure." Even a Seto Kaiba could not resist the cuteness of the girl. She and Mokuba together could convince him to do lots of things when they wanted to. He hoped they'd never find out. Otherwise his reputation was screwed.

The kids were visibly having fun while choosing whatever they wanted. Though both were not the only ones picking things out.

Even Seto eventually reached for some electronic games, and portable systems. How else was he supposed to endure the absolutely boring times in which they did nothing else but to sit around? He'd rather pass his sleepless nights playing video games than to let his depressions get worse by letting those thoughts manipulate his mood. There were at least some ups and downs during the last months, but the downs were accumulating and even getting worse lately. And it was becoming hard to keep the control over his unstable emotions, and not to do something insane.

"Seto, where are you going to?" Mokuba turned around as soon as he noticed his brother's presence was fading away.

"To the drug store. Five minutes."

"You're going all alone?"

"Why not? There's nothing around anymore."

"Okay."

So, the group continued walking towards the selected store, where hopefully better and longer lasting shoes were waiting for them.

"I never thought I'd say that once, but I'm glad to be out of these..."

Mai jerked her purple high heels off her feet, and took a look at her badly hurting heel.

"That's going to take forever to heal!"

"Let me see."

Anzu laid the pair she had in her hands down on the floor to walk over to where the blonde was sitting.

"Wow...How high are they anyway? You're all ripped open and sore!"

"10 cm high..."

Seto, who was back from the drug store lazily threw a package of bandages and desinfecting liquids in front of the girls. As if he already knew what pain would await both women after taking their shoes off.

"Oh thank you, Kaiba! I could kiss you for that!"

"No thanks..."

While the general amusemement was slightly calming them down, it was also irritating. When would the next blow follow?

"SHIT! They've followed us!"

Seto pratically yelled at the massive cars that were about to stop at the parking lots where the Humvees stood still.

"Who followed us, Kaiba?"

A highly alarmed Jou stood up from his compfortable seat, and walked over to the large windows.

"We need to shoot them down before they come in!"

Seto grabbed the backpack he was originally carrying and hastly waved at them to follow him. The panic that was written all over his face, and his fast running made it official; they were in serious danger. The door to the roof banged open, the group stepped on it and ran towards the edge.

"Get down as soon as they take their guns out." Whispered a now very concentrated blue eyed, who was now looking through his rifle scope.

Six men, in military clothes were standing next to their vehicles, seemingly talking about the Humvees they probably recognized. Indeed, those idiots from the non-infected refuge were furiously looking out for the group of people who dared to disrespect their authority by fighting back, and even damaging their equipment.

One of them was instantly identified by Seto, who already knew of the serious trouble they were in.

_'Oh fuck! That's Don!.'_

A rain of bullets fell upon? the unknowing uniformed men, causing them to immediately cry out in pain and to hit the floor in less than three seconds. With as much precision as possible, one shot after the other fell. Especially the CEO was having a hard time with aiming perfectly, for he knew very well what his main target; the man who was using one of his fallen mates as a shield to protect himself, was capable of. Now he was probably already in the building, looking out for whoever attacked him.

Knowing the enemies strategies perfectly well, Seto knew how to proceed without suffering severe damage.

As silently as possible, the group consisting nine people walked down to the second floor, to stop behind one of the protecting walls before they could make a huge defenseless target out of themselves. His hectic behaviour, that included heavy swearing and violent movements happened almost silently, but still, it was all but reassuring.

What an irony, it seemed that the living were a bigger threat than the flesh loving dead.

_"Come out and play with me, little Seto. I know you're hiding somewhere!"_

The malicious and playful tone in the man's voice was enough to send a shiver through quite a few spines.

Seto swore mentally, and saw no other option but to rely on Jou's help.

"Tell him I'm not here, we won't get rid off him otherwise." Seto whispered while checking if his rifle had enough ammo.

Jou hesitantly leaned forward. "Leave us alone, we have no idea who you're talkin' about!"

"There's no use, kid. Those Humvees outside belonged to no one else but to Gozaburo Kaiba. Stop hiding, Seto! You coward!"

How could such an idiot be so observative?

"What's up, dick-head? Are you bored?" It may not have been audible, but clearly visible. The blue-eyed man was more than a little nervous. They could tell by the way his trigger, and middle-finger kept drumming on the killing machine he held so tightly in his hands.

"Stop calling me that! Gozaburo taught you to be respectful to authorities!"

"You're no authority. Besides, you're the one wanting to kill me, don't you think that's also a lack of respect?"

"Oh, but I have my reasons! Before all of his started, my hands were tied, so I couldn't go after you, but now...I see no laws holding me back!"

"Aww, why the grudge?" A malicious laughter followed. Of course he always had an assumption concerning Don's hatred against himself.

"You dare to ask?! Gozaburo was like a brother to me, and an excellent financial source to the military! Until you decided to be selfish and to kill him!"

All eyes were now on the concentrated Seto, who was standing right before the corner where the guy could possibly appear, ready to shoot at any time.

Was it true? Was it possible? Yes. Judging by the general lack of scruples and the massive aggressivity he showed while literally slaughtering the undead, it was way more than only 'possible'. Then, he finally spoke, with a visibly malicious grin.

"It's not my fault he tried to teach himself how to fly!"

"Don't play the innocent! I remember the way you looked at him. Full of anger. I always knew something was wrong with you. You were all but thankful. Gozaburo was the one who got you and that brat Mokuba out of that pityful orphanage! You were trained by me, the best of the best, you had an excellent education, the most expensive teachers on earth, and yet, you still dared to make a joke out of Kaiba Corporation!"

"Not to mention much more money, and less corruption in the third world countries..."

"Pah, bullshit! The weak are supposed to bend down in front of the strong, that's nature!"

"Oh sure, killing kids is very productive. You need yo get laid, you know that?"

"Grr, shut up! You're only an insolent and useless brat, nothing more! You never had the balls to do your duty, not even as we were attacked by those bastards!"

"Yes, with knifes because you just finished killing their families!"

"I'll say it again, they were a danger to us. Though I'm sure Gozaburo gave you the right punishment for disobeying our orders..."

"You can count on that, dick-head..."

Don laughed out loud at the delicious thought of Seto being beaten by Gozaburo, while the group behind the CEO just listened to the heated discussion in disbelief. None of them, with a single exception, knew much of the Kaibas, especially of the older one. What they heard until now was terrible and beyond. The only calming facts were that he had a good heart and didn't use the influence and power he had with his name to harm innocent people. At least, that's how it sounded like.

Seto was hard to work with, and there were doubts about the lack of self-control, but it took only a single look at Mokuba to know that he was harmless unless he was offended.

Before they could even realize and sort out the immense amount of informations, they saw a rifle appearing out of nowhere, pointing directly at Seto's head. Said one was also in the offensive position, ever since he sensed the man arrive.

"How nice to see you after such a long time...You look like shit, you know?"

"Actually I'm okay with it. At least I don't have such a dick-face."

It must have been a very sensitive nerve that Seto kept hitting.

"I'll tell you again, stop calling me that! So, what now?"

Both rivals were now slowly, but most of all, carefully walking in circles while aiming at each other. All possible attention was dedicated to the enemy. Looking away was not available as an option. Death would be the inescapable consequence.

As the rest of the group appeared in Seto's eyeshot for the first time, an evil smirk formed on his lips. He couldn't posibly ask for more support.

"You'll look like Swiss cheese if you pull that trigger of yours, Don."

Seto started trying to disarm the situation with simple psychology. An egg was probably smarter than the guy dressed in different types of green.

Yet he was intelligent enough to realize the danger of losing his own life. There was no way he would allow Seto to spit on his cold and dead body. It would be the opposite very soon...

"You're lucky this time, little Seto...But don't you forget that I'll hunt you until I see you and your brother dead-"

"Shut the fuck up and keep walking."

Everyone knew that letting the guns sink could be a sign of resignation, so, as they walked down the stairs, towards the emergency doors, no arm was lowered. Sugoroku was the only exception. The older man remained behind his grandson and his friends, still thinking about how dangerous weapons were, and still not understanding why Yugi, Jou, and the others got along with such primitive methods.

Then, after twenty eternal minutes of extremely high tension, the door closed, leaving the dangerous intruder exposed to the dead. With some luck, he would be ripped apart by them.

As fastly as his feet carried him, Seto ran up to the second floor, where the large windows allowed to see the huge parking lot, and watched as Don hastly got into the vehicle to drive away.

Only then, when he was sure the security was more or less back, the CEO allowed himself a loud and frustrated sigh, that was followed by a forceful punch to the window.

He sensed the confused looks on his back, and was already annoyed at the thought of having to explain himself, as always.


	22. 22 Maze Of Secrets

_**A huge thank you to Kex3, and to xsapphirexrosesxfanx! Thank you very much for the constant support!**_

_**check out my profile page for my DA account! I finally managed to upload one of my drawings about this story!) It's called 'Zombie Fistfight'...**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-gi-oh! I'm not gaining anything by posting this! I just own the plot.**_

* * *

**Chapter 22: Maze Of Secrets**

At the sight of the roamers that were attracted by the previous shooting, and now indulging the dead soldier's bodies, Seto thought of what answers he would give to the wave of questions that would obviously follow.

Jou was the first with enough courage to open his mouth, and to express himself.

"What was all that about, Kaiba?"

All eyes didn't move an inch from him, not even at the sight of his pissed looks. The past and the life that was part of it was a topic that was strictly avoided in the small Kaiba family that consisted only the two brothers, and Seto's personal assistant Rachel.

"Try to use your brain for once."

In order to try, and stop the argument that would surely follow, Mai decided to speak, and to communicate what that whole bizarre discussion had made her understand.

"Kaiba Corp was all about weapons before, so I think that Kaiba was specially trained for that to be prepared to lead the company. And well, that Don seems to be the one who has trained Kaiba."

Keeping the same face, Seto felt his stomach starting aching from the pression that the massive curiosity caused. This was only the start of the drama...

"Kujaku's right, live with what you know now."

Seto turned around to walk away, clearly giving them the message that the interrogation was over. Well, at least he tried.

"Seto, did you really kill Gozaburo?"

Mokuba's voice, and the words he said made his older brother freeze on the spot. Why did the kid of all people start asking too?

Should the young boy really know about the truth? If it was going to be revealed right now, the whole group of geeks would also know the secret Seto would have taken to the grave in order to protect his own freedom and Mokuba's life. Telling Jou about his neck back in the mansion had been simple, since he knew had also suffered the same pain of being humiliated, beaten, and abused.

_'Fuck it, let them know. Mokuba always knows when I'm lying. And I don't care about what that kindergarden thinks. I'm an asshole to them anyways.'_

"Yes, I did."

Three words. Only three little words were needed to shock the hell out of them. Not even Mokuba, who always had some difficulties with believing the story of their stepfather's 'suicide' dared speak. He simply never wanted to ask, wanting to avoid a possible argument. All that mattered, was that Gozaburo had disappeared from the raw surface of their lifes, and that many doors that were once closed, opened, revealing a whole lot of new opportunities.

They had a murderer in front of them. It was one hell of a reason to be worried, even if the fear was kind of controversial, since none of them could count the heads that were smashed until now. The difference was that the crime had been commited years ago, where it still was illegal to take someone's life.

Not understanding what was going on, Michelle couldn't even think of looking away form the adults next to her. She didn't even dare to speak, in fear of getting yelled at for interrupting.

"I understand why you didn't tell anyone. But why did you lie to me?"

While pinching the brigde of his nose, Seto let out a groan, and asked himself why Mokuba absolutely had to ask him that in front of everyone. It was none of their concern!

"Mokuba, there are things you're not supposed to know for your own safety. That Gozaburo died was all you needed to know.

He was absolutely not going to tell his little brother the reason why he forced the old man to disappear, and why at that time. If Mokuba would ever know in what danger he had found himself back then, he would surely not stop thinking about the topic. Seto knew he was upset and angry at him. They usually shared everything, after all, but telling his sibling what he wanted to hear was no option.

"We'll need alcohol."

Anzu blinked in surprise, and ended up frowning. "Kaiba, I don't think it's a good time to get drunk."

"Ever heard of molotow cocktails?"

"Ooh" Was the collective reaction.

"Seto, what's a molotow cocktail?" Michelle asked, after finally finding the courage to do so.

"You'll see."

(A/N:I'd love to share my knowledge, but I'm also a bit afraid of geting the story deleted from this site for telling how to build those things, so please forgive me ;))

After intense preparation and lots of patience from Seto's side, they were back on the roof, ready to talk about the plan. The worry about how this should work out with the quite big mass and the self-made weapons was nagging at most of them. Even if they'd be able to build enough cocktails, and to get rid of all ghouls at once. The horrid noise would also be an important influence. More and more interrested walking corpses would emergeand, by the constant moaning and hissing, informing the world of their hunger, and also call more and more of their fellows.

"Wait, we'll also hit our cars!" Jou spoke what the blue eyed brunette already noticed. He had started to think of a solution minutes ago.

"Remember? They get attracted by noise."

Seeing Mokuba's brother walking to the other side of the roof, the group followed him hastly, to stay informed about his plans.

"We're going to lead them to the other direction? That's brilliant!" Mai shouted, happy to know they had a genius within their group. Without thinking of the consequences, the woman wrapped her arms around Seto's neck, and almost squeezed the life out of him.

_'What's wrong with that woman always touching me?!'_ Seto thought while backing away, and trying to release himself from her iron grip. After the two seconds that felt like an hour to Seto, Mai finally let go off him, visibly amused by how easy it was to truly startle the multi-billionaire.

"Oh relax, hun!"As if to put the cherry on top of the cake, the blonde patted Seto on his already tensed back.

"Could you _possibly_ stop touching me?!"

Seto turned around, and started putting the first self-made bomb on fire.

The plan effectively worked, it now all depended on how fast they were to run down to the cars before the ghouls would notice there was nothing to reap where the explosions had happened.

Mokuba and Michelle were having a hard time with keeping up with the running Anzu, Yugi, Jou, Seto, Mai, Hanasaki and Sugoroku. The latter was already breathing hard from the constant sprinting, even if it was a short one. From the roof, down to the Humvees, which were only five meters away from the doors they would get out of.

Making short process to avoid a fatal mistake and to lose the kids, Seto and Jou stopped to pick them up for the rest of the way.

With all the unaccustomed adrenaline flowing through his weins, and the fear, Hanasaki forgot an important rule; Don't make any friggin' noise! As he tripped over his own feet and fell to the floor, he shouted for the rest of them to wait for him.

Jou, who was, just like Seto, now done with putting the two youngest in the backseat got startled by a roamer that appeared in front of him.

Luckily for him, Seto had been attentive, and managed to give the creature a second and definitive death by shooting its head away.

"Why are they so fast?!" The blonde shouted while getting into the driver's seat. And starting the Humvee.

"Why the hell would I know?" The CEO yelled while trying to free himself from the four nearest monsters. He heard Anzu yelling from the inside for him to get in, Mokuba and Michelle screaming in fear each times he would almost get bitten.

Additionally to the blocked path to the vehicle's security, the damaged ankle started to bitch around again, making it almost impossible for him to run away. Anzu started to open her own door in order to let the older Kaiba in, but he only shook his head no before using a gun to shoot the nearest roamers that represented a danger to his life.

Seeing no other option to save time, Seto jumped on the car hood and hit the front window twice to make Anzu finally drive away from the trap that was forming around them.

As soon as they were far enough from the danger, Seto had enough of sitting on the outside, so he gave Anzu the signal to stop.

Knowing his inhability to show some patience, she abruptly hit the brakes, making the unprepared Seto fall on the dusty floor they were riding on.

"Stay inside, both of you." Anzu said while opening her door and getting out. Seto seemed to not even bother with standing up. Could he even do so? The man looked wretched.

Through his semi-closed eyes, he saw a hand waving in front of his face, probably to check if he was still conscious, or alive. One or the other.

"You did that on purpose, didn't you?"

Anzu chuckled while helping him standing up, wondering if his state prevented him from protesting against her support. She was also surprised by how heavy he actually was.

"Maybe..."

"Mh..."

The walking support was wordlessly accepted, until they finally reached the passenger's seat.

"Big brother, are you okay?"

Mokuba immediately leaned forward and carefully laid his hands on his brother's shoulders.

"*Sigh* The usual, Mokuba."

Seto was now annoyed with everything, even with the air he was breathing. But mostly with the fact that for the second time, he offered death the opportunity to try, and bite him.

While opening the shoelaces of both his heavy shoes, Seto carelessly took his phone out of his right pantpocket and called Jou.

"So, where should we go to next?"

"Maybe we should stop in the woods, find a river or something."

"Yea. It's dangerous to drive through the night, and we had nothing to eat anyways."

"Mh, okay. Bye."

After hanging up, Seto turned around to look at Anzu.

"You heard it?"

"Clearly."

"No doubt, he's loud enough..."

After a small chuckle, Anzu noticed he was quite in pain while re-fixing his shoes, especially cleaning the right one that had been stuck in that dead woman dressed in a suit, and taking care of the damaged ankle. It seemed that his mood couldn't get worse as he slid the window next to him down to throw the, full of gore, cleaning papers out.

After disinfecting his hands, he leaned back on the seat he was sitting on, with crossed arms in front of his chest. It took five minutes for him to stop blaming himself for being inattentive, or even existing, as he finally fell asleep with his head leaning on the window. The constant whistling in his ears, due to all the noise, wasn't helping at all. Ever since Gozaburo, and his loud, and rude personality, Seto's ears had become quite sensitive to constant noise.

An impressing amout of employees at Kaiba Corp had been fired by their young, blue-eyed boss for raising their voices. None of them knew the true reason for getting jobless, since there was no way in hell Seto would have revealed that he was easily irritable, and afraid of sudden noise and movements. To him and his body, it still meant 'You failed, you're going to get beaten.' He'd be damned if people ever got to know about that weak point of his.

"Anzu, why won't he tell me? We're brothers, I have the right to know why he did that. We went through so much together. I don't understand him."

Anzu, still concentrated on following Jou to wherever he was driving, was overwhelmed with the boy's sudden questions.

"Mokuba, I don't know your brother well enough to give you an answer, but I know he didn't do that to hurt, or annoy you. Like he said, there are things you shouldn't know right now. Maybe he'll tell you when you're older, when you're not so vulnerable." The woman spoke, while quickly checking if Seto was indeed asleep. Who knew what trouble she'd earn herself if the man next to her so much as overheard the discussion's topic.

Michelle had been listening with interest since the moment Mokuba spoke. She still didn't understand what the whole discussion was about.

"Who was the man Seto killed?"

Mokuba turned to look at her. He totally forgot about the younger girl next to him that had heard everything, and probably understood nothing.

"That's a very long story..."

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Thanks for reading! Remember to review!

-Emi;)


	23. 23 Kaiba, The Killer Panda Bear

_**Wow, I was soooo impressed by your reviews to the last chapter! I cannot thank you guys enough for the support, and the criticism that helps me very much! OVER 100 REVIEWS! I LOVE YOU GUYS!**_

_**Kex3; Yes, this whole morality topic is quite complicated, and that's what I'm working with during the next few chapters. Thank you soo much, my friend!**_

_**shopgirlNY152; Don't worry, you're gonna find out soon;) Thank you!**_

_**se-tar; Indeed, they don't really see that what Jou has done is also wrong. I guess it is because they don't really know Seto's true motivation to get rid of Gozaburo. You really got me blushing^^I try my best to inform myself about the things I'm writing about, since I find it a true shame when people just invent facts that are very well known only because they're too lazy to ask uncle google about it :D Though I have to say, my husband is always a big help when it comes to the vehicles and the weapons^^ It is a true honor for me to know that even though you're not really a fan of the gory doom plot, you take the time to read this story! I'm happy to hear that the many time I spend analyzing the story and it's direction is appreciated. Since this story is quite long, I'm doing my best to determine the right course of action and to keep the chara's developement in mind. Thank you for the interest, and enjoy!)**_

_**Guest; Don't worry, I'm just letting them start slowly ;) Thank you!**_

_**Sinrya Mangafn; Thank you for the nice reviews! I'm glad you're enjoying this story so far!**_

_**varee; You're right about the author's notes. Though I have to say, each time I read a book or a fanfiction, and the note is marked with a *, and I have to search it at the bottom of the page, I get quite frustrated because I kind of lose the flow. If it bothers you that much, just tell me and I'll do my best to change that;) Ah, they were in that shopping center, remember? They threw the molotov cocktails from the roof to fool the zombies in order to be able to flee. Sorry for the confusion, and thank you for the reviews!**_

_**Enjoy chapter 23!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-gi-oh! I'm not gaining anything by posting this! I just own the plot.**_

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**Chapter 23: Kaiba, The Killer Panda Bear**

"Yugi, what do you think about what Kaiba has done?"

Sugoroku had been worried about having the cold-hearted CEO with them from the beginning, and his doubts were more than confirmed at the mall. Who knew how long they'll manage to survive with that ticking bomb?

"I don't know much about his past with Gozaburo, but I think that if he really wanted to hurt us, he would have done it before."

"Yugi, I don't know. He already is unpredictable. Now add the lack of sleep, and the stress wer're having with running away!"

"Grandpa, he's okay. I know a few things about what his stepfather did. I don't know more, but I'm sure Kaiba had his reasons to do what he did."

"Yugi, how old is he?"

"18, I think..."

"Gozaburo died about four years ago, that means Kaiba took a life at the age of fourteen! Isn't that a reason to worry?"

"Yes, but not in Kaiba's case-"

"Yugi, especially in Kaiba's case! Have you seen how he slaughtered the undead? That's pure aggressivity! Do I have to mentinon Shizuka's and Jonouchi's father?"

"Grandpa, I understand your worry, but he isn't that bad. He's only doing what he thinks is best."

Sugoroku was frustrated with his grandson, and felt as if he was talking to a giant wall.

During the discussion, Mai had started to get annoyed because they were arguing about things that were so obvious and logical.

"We just don't have to start fighting with him, that's all. We should be worried about those monsters everywhere. I mean look at him-"

Mai pointed at the car behind them, showing them their 'oh so dangerous killer'.

"-he looks like he's in a coma. I don't think making our lifes miserable is a priority to him now. He's focused on Mokuba anyways."

Jou, Sugoroku and Hanasaki turned around to confirm the blonde woman's words.

"Don't worry, gramps, I talked to him a lot, and I know he's no reason to worry."

Jou gave Sugoroku a reassuring look, hoping to convince the man to not worry anymore. He and Seto had been enemies before this mess started, after all. So his defending words should truly mean something.

Sugoroku only frowned, knowing that they were right. The guy next to the driving Anzu looked wretched and beyond.

"Look, there's a forest to our right. We can rest a bit now." Jou stated, wanting to improve the general mood in the vehicle.

"Wow! There's a river! Can we go inside, Anzu?"

Mokuba, being the usual whirlwind, asked Anzu as he and Michelle stormed out to breathe the fresh air.

"Wait! Both of you!"

Anzu didn't even manage to turn off the car and to get out as both kids pushed their doors open, tired of having to sit the whole time.

Jou and Yugi were already walking towards her friend, also checking if the environement was safe enough for them to stay there.

"We should remain here to get some rest."

Jou stated as he stretched his back, which was hurting from the long driving. Never would he have thought he'd grow tired of it. Ever since he was still too young to get his driver's license, he always craved a car.

Most of them felt weird with staying on a spot while thousands, probably millions of monsters, and a military freak were after their lives.

"Grandpa, are you still worried about Kaiba?"

Sugoroku was starring at the now deeply sleeping reason for his fears. Seto never noticed the car coming to a halt, or the opening and the closing of the doors.

"Of course I am, Yugi!"

This time, the older Muto didn't hold himself back from shouting and attracting all the attention. When would these kids realize that they were in serious danger, even though there were no human eating monsters near them in that moment?

"What's wrong?"

Anzu asked with a questionning look, wondering what the discussion was about. She knew Sugoroku for a very long time, and as far as she remembered, he never had looked this tense and upset.

"I am only worried about staying with a person that became a murderer at the age of fourteen! I-"

"Stop talking about my brother like that, you old fool!"

Since both yougest had waited for Anzu's permission to finally go swimming in the river, they had heard every single word.

If there was something the usually friendly and polite Mokuba couldn't stand, then it was hearing ignorant people talking bullshit about his brother, the only living family that cared for him.

"Mokuba, not even you knew of what he did. Face it, not even you know your brother well enough."

The boy never had been someone to get angry fastly, Yugi and his friends knew that much, but like every other person, Mokuba also had some sensitive buttons no one should push too much.

"Who are you to talk about my brother like that?! You don't know what sacrifices he made to get this far-"

"He probably killed even more people!"

Sugoroku interrupted the boy, not understanding that there was no use in trying to convince him that his brother was evil and unpredictable, and that he would probably not even be afraid of hurting his only family.

Just as the younger Kaiba was about to shout even louder, a deep and serious voice interrupted him, preventing the revelation of more deatils that concerned no one.

"Calm down, Mokuba."

The discussion was too heated to even notice Seto getting out of the Humvee, and walking towards them. All the attention was now directed to the dangerous looking blue eyed.

"Never talk to my brother like that anymore. No, scratch that, don't talk to him at all, if what's coming out is such crap."

"I am only stating the facts!"

"So? You don't know more than that, and I don't see why you'd have the right to know. If I wanted to get rid of you, I would have done it a few weeks ago. Now shut up, you're pissing me off."

With that, Seto officially finished the discussion and turned around to head towards the vehicles.

Sugoroku sighed in frustration and shook his head while no one knew what to say to calm him down.

"Hanasaki, Yugi, let's get some wood for the fire."

_'I'll tear up his throat the next time...'_

The sharp axe hit a tree that was already damaged, probably by the lightning, and already halfway hanging down. The leading hands belonged to Seto. They were covered with working gloves.

"You shouldn't be doing that."

Anzu's warning voice couldn't stop him from repeatedly slamming the axe into the damaged tree, trying to shake off his frustration with that.

"I shouldn't do a lot of things..."

He answered out of breathe, not even bothering about looking at her.

"You're only hurting yourself, silly. Come on, you should cool that ankle down in the water."

Anzu didn't know where she took the courage to grab his arm, and to drag him to the water. All of his protests were useless, and stopped since he knew it was true.

"Hey, I don't remember getting married to you!"

She stopped walking and turned around, with her eyes widened in disbelief.

"What?!"

"Because you're acting like it!"

"Sometimes men need protection from their own stupidity. Remember how you and Jou started fighting at the mall? Your eye is all bruised. You look like a panda bear!"

With a loud sigh, the young woman left Seto where he stood, right next to the water.

_'Since when do I give in that easily? Dammit...'_

With that question in mind, Seto sat down and started opening his heavy boots.

"Let me help you, Seto!"

Mokuba had seen his older brother bending down and wincing in pain while opening the laces and quickly ran towards him.

"Thank you, Mokuba."

As the fresh, yet warm feeling hit the hurting ankle, Seto allowed himself to sigh, enjoying the cooling effect, and admitting Anzu was right.

"Look, Anzu's joining us!" Mokuba happily waved at the woman, dressed in a black bikini, which consisted a tight black top, including some very tight panties, which didn't allow any shape to hide itself.

Seto knew, ever since his first encounter with the group, by listening to them talking in te classroom, that Anzu's passion was to dance. Her future was supposed to consist intense training with the sole target of becoming a professional dancer.

_'She sure has the body for it...'_

Every step towards himself and the playing kids got him a clearer sight on her skin, and the small details that he would love to get to know.

"Big brother, stop drooling..."

Not wanting to embarass anyone, Mokuba had been careful to whisper those words to the taller man in front of him, making him realize how his eyes had been glued to the gorgeous target of his desire. There was also a growing problem that had to be hidden quickly. Seeing Mai half naked had affected him a bit, but seeing Anzu in that outfit completely did the job.

He was hard as a rock, to a point where it already hurt. It was too long ago since he and Rachel had one of their special meetings. She was in her very well deserved vacation, relaxing and collecting herself from the hard work they did together during the turbulent time in which Kaiba Corp's newest gaming system had to be completed. It was only thanks to his personal assistent, that Seto managed to send the construction plans and the material orders to the corresponding companies.

_'Great, how shouhld I hide this now?'_

Just as the brunette stepped next to him, the black sweater he was wearing was pulled over his crotch by his fast hands.

There came the next problem; He was taller. That meant free sight on her impeccably formed breasts. All Seto did was to hope she wouldn't get into the fresh water now, but since the smell of he dead also decided to remain on her, and her nose was obviously not blocked, she would inevitably want to wash herself.

"Waaah Mokuba!"

The kid had nothing better to do, than to grab Anzu's hand, and to pull her into the water with himself...

_'Oh God, Mokuba! Why the hell?!'_ Seto thought to himself as the water also hit his own face.

"It's too cold to get inside at once!" Instantly after getting out to catch the air her lungs suddenly missed, the woman wrapped her arms around herself and jumped around.

"Now it's easier to get used to the temperature, Anzu!" Michelle cheerfully began splashing impressive amounts of water towards Anzu.

"Oh just wait until I get you!"

Playfully, Anzu started running behind the young girl, chasing her until they both fell into the incredibly good feeling, and clean liquid.

Seto watched his little brother and his friends enjoying themselves, feeling awkward. All the attention Seto usually dedicated to Mokuba, automatically changed the general direction, until his gze fell, once again, on Anzu's upper body. And this time, instead of only standing around and doing nothing, Yugi's cheerleader, as Seto liked to call her, was wrestling with two energetic kids who were finally able to get a decent distraction from the boring, yet life-threatening routine.

There was the hope that the ridiculously small pieces of clothe that covered parts of her good stuff wouldn't withstand all the movement and the additional water. The blue-eyed multi billionaire rarely had the time to drift into that kind of thoughts. The tight shedule would barely allow a single compfortable night in his huge bed.

Now, the only problem he had were the pants he was currently wearing. Also a tight matter...

The human body shortly answers to whatever weather conditions it is exposed to. Everyone knows how; when it's warm, too hot, fresh, too cold...

Anzu's body, that had to deal with the sudden fall into the fresh water, gave a very natural answer to what it had been subjected to, and did nothing more than worsening Seto's condition.

Oh how he would love to slowly lick one of those hard nipples, to torture her until she'd lose all control over herself and moaned in despair for more...

"Seto! Don't you want to come inside?"

Michelle happily waved at the man she had started to consider a father. No one would replace her real parents, that was for sure, but Seto was a person she would not bear to lose.

"No, I need to clean that graze. I'll take a shower then."

"Is it hurting much?"

"Quite a lot."

Anzu had that well known concerned look on her face once again.

"Ask me if you need some help, right?"

Seto tried hard not to blush by looking at her, and nodded.

_'Believe me, I know how you could help me...'_

Not only the hurting ankle was giving him a hard time to walk towards the right trailer. The tightness in his pants didn't allow any bigger movements either.

"Fuck..."

The old clothe that had been covering the wound fell to the floor while the young CEO couldn't keep himself from swearing loudly at the sight of his right upper arm's ripped flesh. The wound wasn't big, but nevertheless, the ink underneath the skin was either partially, or completely damaged.

"That's going to take forever to heal..."

Once he got rid off the clothes on his tired body, Seto climbed into the small shower cabin and took one of the most refreshing showers he had in the past month. The feeling of the pleasant hot water running down his back distracted him and led his thoughts back to a certain brunette. The pictures of Anzu and her body, the reaction it gave to Mokuba's little prank, and Seto's imagination got best of him. He couldn't even remember the last time he had found the time and the urge to manipulate his joystick like that. Though he had to admit he couldn't understand why he started feeling that way about her.

Knowing there woudn't be any endless meetings, or even more work waiting for him afterwards, the older Kaiba didn't think twice before taking his throbbing lenght into his right hand, and to continue thinking about the things he'd like to do with Anzu and her body.

* * *

**_I didn't want to make things go too fast between those two, and had to think a lot about how to make them realize their attraction towards each other. I absolutely wanted to avoid doing the clichée we often see in fanfics; chapter 1, they run into each other and start thinking about one another, chapter 2, must spend time with each other due to some reason, chapter 3, they realize their undying love for each other and the big happy end follows..._**

**_It makes me really happy to know you guys enjoy my work! See ya in ch.24!_**

**_Emi;)_**


	24. 24 Treacherous Bodies

_Hey there! I'm updating this a little later than I intended to. A few annoying things came in the way. My Husband and I werde suddenly forced to look out for another car, since the older one startend rebelling, and well...I liked that car damnit..._

_But we were lucky and found one for a good price. In between, I've finished a picture called 'Gangnam Style, azureship Version'. Check it out, it's on my DA account ( infos on my profile)!)_

_At first I should warn you about this chapter. I've decided to add one of the ideas that has been bugging me for very long, and as far as I can remember, I haven't seen anyone using that one, so I decided to take a risk. I don't really know if this counts as OOC. I'll explain my doubts at the end of the chapter, where Im sure you'll know what I'm talking about._

_I apologize for the waiting time, and enjoy!_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-gi-oh! I'm not gaining any profits by posting this! I just own the plot.**_

* * *

**Chapter 24: Treacherous Bodies**

It was only now that Seto realized what kind of effect the blue-eyed woman had on him. Why was that? He asked himself while relaxing some more. Was it how Anzu unconditionally cared for everyone, including himself and Mokuba? Usually, when other people, except for Rachel and Mokuba, treated him with affection, their minds were solely focused on what his mastercard had to say.

But somehow, he felt, and almost thought differently about Anzu. He was fighting against himself to not even start trusting that 'gut feeling', but on the other side, the positive argument turned out to be Rachel. He had been right with trusting her, by listening to his feelings before.

Anzu's tendence to argue, and to throw his own words back at him, to stand up to him, was annoying, but, also to his astonishment, very enticing. To rile her up even more was highly tempting...

_'That's it, I'm getting insane...'_

More than relaxed, Seto decided to stop his wandering thoughts and turned the water off to get out, and to dry himself with a generously big towel. There had been a reason why the pants he chose at that mall mostly had side pockets on both leg's sides. In such dangerous situations the group found itself in sometimes, it was necessary for him to constantly have important items right on his body.

By the second his belt made 'click', indicating that it was closed, a high pitched scream shot through the air, startling the calm Seto.

Before his right hand was even able to reach the fresh grey sweater, the small entrance door burst open, showing no one else, but a horrified Anzu.

"Hanasaki's hurt! I think he cut his leg away!"

"What?!"

"Come on! Come on!" She was obviously having a panic attack, by the way she hastly waved her right hand at him to follow her. But despite her present state, Anzu couldn't help but notice Seto's toned upper body while he was occupied with getting the first-aid kit out of one of the small kitchen's drawers.

As soon as the man was right in front of her, she was able to recognize what adorned the skin she saw for the first time. Arms, shoulders and his chest were partially covered by beautiful pictures whose creation surely had hurt a lot. She could recognize it was the Maori style.

The time for a closer observation was cut by the interrupting material that was pulled over it by Seto, who didn't even dare to look into the girl's eyes due to the fear of the guaranteed following questions. All he did was to hurry, and to walk biskly towards the injured, and surrounded by the whole worried group, Hanasaki.

The blonde boy was sittting on the dirty floor, holding his lower leg, and crying in pain.

"Let me see." Was all Seto said before kneeling down in front of the younger guy, and taking his smaller hands away from the bloody wound to get a better sight.

"It's only the calf. You're lucky."

"How can I be lucky if I just sliced my leg open?!" Everyone was stunned. Since when did Hanasaki have the courage to increase his voice towards Mokuba's intimidating brother?

"Because the axe you were using is damn sharp. You could have broken your freakin' bone easily."

Seto sounded annoyed. Why the hell should he be the one fixing other's injuries while he was also bleeding and being in pain?

"Just fix it and don't move too much."

Sighing and wincing in pain, he stood up and turned around to walk away.

"Wait! Aren't you going to help?!" Sugoroku shouted, shocked by Seto and his lack of willingness to use the precious knowledge he got for something good.

"Do I look like a fucking nurse?"

"Aw come on, Seto, you're the best at fixing wounds."

Mokuba would never confront his own flesh and blood with their past in front of anybody. The topic was an unspoken taboo to them, since it took Rachel a bit of time to get the courage to start following her heart and taking care of the tortured boy. It was Seto who had to learn it at the beginning of the horror, in order to avoid any infections which would probably not hold Gozaburo back from maltreating his soul and body further.

Seto knew too well of his little brother's social attitude, and never wanted to disappoint him, so he had no other choice but to give in.

"Thank you, Kaiba."

"Shut it, would you, Yugi?"

The multi-color haired instantly closed his mouth to leave the bad tempered CEO alone. The first thing he did, was to flip a knife, that was probably illegal open, and to tear up Hanasaki's blood soaked pants until the fresh wound was accessible.

"Hold him down."

"Huh, what?!"

Hanasaki asked, with panic written all over his face. He knew Seto had a certain tendency to be, what would be the right word? Rude. Especially when he was in a bad mood once again.

Unfortunately, Yugi and Jou did exactly as they were told, and held him down with a firm grip. Not enough to hurt him, but enough to not let him struggle too much.

"I'm going to clean it, and it's going to hurt like fuck, got that?"

All he got was an extremely high pitched "Uh-huh..." with quick and short nodding.

Never had Hanasaki been subjected to such an awful and agonizing pain. He silently thanked all the Gods he knew as the stinging pain started to fade away while Seto started to pull the cut's sides together with some fixing tape in order to give it some halt, and to help it heal properly.

The bandaging afterwards happend very fastly to Hanasaki's luck.

"Okay. No water, no walking around too much. Keep quiet."

This time, Seto definetly walked away.

_'Hm, the graze's hurting even more now. Great, I really am a nurse.'_

Seto usually never let himself fall into a chair like that, but at the moment he could care less. With a wince, and the occasional swearing, he managed to slip his right arm out of the long sleeve to check if it had the signs of an infection. Each movement made the wound throb painfully.

_'At least it's not ruined...'_

His thoughts were interrupted by the opening door to his right. There was no attempt to hide his halfway uncovered upper body since he knew what pain it would cause. At least he immediately managed to put his shemag around his neck. Fortunately, no one had noticed his neck while he fixed Hanasaki's leg.

"Ever heard of knocking?"

Anzu rolled her eyes and sat down right next to him. She knew exactly that his rude attitude was only to scare her away, and that he would never harm her physically.

"Can't you go away?"

Seto was more than uncomfortable with Yugi's little cheerleader starring right at one of the secrets no one but Rachel and Mokuba knew about him. Those pictures were part of his own way of dealing with the scars left by the sadistic Gozaburo, the abusive private teachers, and partially himself, when the depressions got best of him. His image as a businessman would also be damaged if anyone got to see the scars. So, in order to make them disappear at least a little bit, the CEO had decided to start anew by getting tattooed.

Since not a single soul dared to invade his private space enough to notice the hidden scars, they would remain a secret. Sure, those pictures underneath his skin could've turned out to be a perfect opportunity for the media to start freaking out, and to accuse him of not being serious, but on the other side, self-mutilation was worse. Seto could already imagine what chaos he'd manage to cause if he revealed Gozaburo's violent 'education'...People would start calling him weak, try to convince him to start a therapy, and he sure as hell could forget the leading position in KaibaCorp. if his menal sanity was in doubt.

(A/N: I've seen a documentary about tattoos about two or three years ago, which mentioned the relationship between the Japanese and that kind of body art. It's much more tolerated nowadays.)

It had been one of the first few decisions he had taken after Rachel had threatened to tie herself on him if he didn't stop cutting himself. She'd thrown away the alcohol and the drugs he'd been keeping in his room. The fuck if he knew from where she knew. After more or less three months, the painful yet funny appointments with the needles had started. The woman had not once quit his side, of course, never even thinking of keeping her mouth shut. He'd been fine with that solution, being quite the masochist...And there was no way he'd willingly destroy the art inderneath his skin by self-mutilation.

Seto knew that, if he ever made the mistake to get on a paparrazi's shot in a t-shirt, it would by far not be as bad as it would be if the scars were still visible. He loved the thought of being able to walk around in a sleeveless shirt in summer, and even considered to finally get his neck covered too in order to do so. It surely wasn't normal for businessmen, but then again, 'normal' wasn't one of the many words to describe him and his lifestlye.

"They're beautiful..."

"Yea, whatever. Now go away."

"But why? You shouldn't be ashamed of them, you know?"

"I'm not ashamed. I just don't feel like having you staring at me like that, so fuck off."

"Why so aggressive? Look, I have one too."

Before Seto could tell her how useless it would be, Anzu already pulled the edge of her yellow top to the side, showing a little detail Seto had no possibility to notice before. It was a little cat's paw.

"My cat Finn died last summer, and well, this was her paw-print. My parents know nothing about this, and they would dsinherit me or something if they knew."

Anzu kept talking about how her parents complained about her and her plans for the future, her friends that were mostly males. This was probably an attempt at socializing with him so that he wouldn't push her away any further. He didn't know. More or less half of the spoken words truly reached Seto's brain in that moment. All of his concentration was used to realize she was pratically showing him one of her breasts. Not completely, but enough to give him an inspiration of how it looked like underneath the still covering top.

Seto did not know about her own lack of innocence. She was indeed leading the conversation, but her eyes were definetly not focused on his. Otherwise she would have noticed he was no longer listening.

Half of his upper body was revealed, maliciously letting her face redden. Right in that second, Anzu noticed how ridiculous she had to look to him, so her gaze instantly shot up to meet his probably confused expression, but no. It seemed that he was also all but attentive. At least not to her words...

"Eh, Kaiba?"

The waving hand in front of his face finally got him back to earth.

"Were you starring at my breasts the whole time?"

"Uh, no...The tattoo just looks-good." _'Seriously, what do you expect?!'_

What an awkward situation. Both were silently starring at each other, trying not to blush.

"Well, I guess I'll let you take care of your wound. Unless you need help?"

"I'm fine, thanks."

Anzu immediately used the opportunity to stand up, and almost ran out of the vehicle.

_'How embarrassing, how embarrassing, how embarrassing...That,s what I get for trying and being nice...'_

She repeatedly thought to herself while joining the still sitting, and hurt Hanasaki, trying not to show the emotional confusion she found herself in.

"How are you?"

"Not really happy..."

"Why didn't you stay in the water with the others? Jou could've taken care of the fire."

"I was a bit cold, and I thought some movement would help."

"At least you didn't break anything."

"Yes, Kaiba sure knows a lot about these things."

_'Oh you just have to mention that sexy bastard?'_

Of course Anzu had seen her friends without a shirt on. Going to swim in summer was an obligatory activity, at least once in the week. Precisely during the week-ends, where the whole days were free, and nothing could interrupt their refreshing time...And the fact that she had a little fetish for body art didn't help it either.

Not even her friends knew of that small detail. Anzu had been quite surprised about herself as she discovered that preference while surfing on the internet, trying to figure out how much pain would wait for her in case if she really dared to keep the paw-print in that way.

In the meantime, Seto was busy with sorting out the pills he had to take on a daily basis. With a fluent routine, he took the small multi-colored pills into his mouth and swallowed them with some additional water.

"Hey Kaiba!" Jou burst the door to the trailer open and sat down on the chair in front of Seto. Obviously not noticing how noisy he was being once again.

"Why the pills?"

"Various things."

"Like?"

Seto refrained himself from groaning.

"Headache, and my stomach's weird."

"We should eat something, maybe you'll be better then."

The blue-eyed was only glad that Jou didn't show any more interest in the small bottles he just put away. There was no need for anyone to know what he was taking.

Soon, the rest of the group started entering the trailer, talking about what to do next.

"How 'bout dinner?" Mai streched herself, tired from enjoying the water. The king of games started standing up with a sigh.

"I'll take a shower first."

Hearing that, Seto almost chocked from the water he was now drinking.

* * *

Wait before throwing the tomatoes, my friends!) As you can see, I've tried to give some logical explanation as to why Seto would even do that. After some arguing with myself, I decided it was worth a shot. No one has tried giving Seto some tattoos, and I find the idea exciting, especially since the reasons for him doing so seem quite logical. At least to my insane mind anyways... Does that count as OOC when no one's ever actually seen his arms?

It'll make me happy to hear your opinions on that one! I'm not really sure if this was a good idea, or not, so I'm very excited to know how you find this!

See you around, and thank you for the constant support!

-emi


	25. 25 I Am Already Dead

_**Hey there! Finally, ch. 25, enjoy!)**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-gi-oh! I'm not gaining any profits by posting this! I just own the plot.**_

* * *

**Chapter 25: I Am Already Dead**

"The*Whip* whole*Whip* laboratory*Whip* exploded!"

Three forceful, and even more aggressive hits followed, causing the immense pain on the boy's back to get even worse. The bleeding wounds were already opened, and continued getting larger the more they were hit.

The old, obviously choleric, grey haired man was once again getting his frustrations out on one of his adopted sons, Seto. Not only had that brat dared to challenge him, no, he also dared, after defeating and humiliating him in the game he was the worldwide champion at, to place conditons!

Now Gozaburo was forced to drag that useless parasite called Mokuba along!

Kids meant lots of money, and the cash wasted on that weakling could be invested in far more useful things. The older of the two boys that was supposed to be the next heir of Kaiba Corporation was also being incredibly lazy on top of that. What was he thinking? Today had been the first real challlenge where he could have proven himself as the leader of an own project, and all he did was to spit on that opportunity.

"Millions had be spend in there, and you have nothing better to do than to blow the thing up!"

"It was one of the scientists...He let the cup fall-"

Seto answered with a weak voice, trying to defend his own innocence he could even prove with the securiy camera's tapes.

"It's always somebody else's fault eh? I doesn't matter who made the mistake, YOU were the one in charge, and you failed miserably once again!"

There was no use. Seto preferred to keep his mouth shut for his own skin's sake. He had to focus on not losing his consciousness, or even throwing up, what would be an even bigger sign of weakness to the old man. The sadist never got tired of beating the inferior boy whenever he desired to, especially on such an occasion. A simple leather belt that originally was built to give those awful red suit pants of him a halt, was sufficient to please him. This time over, the oldest Kaiba even found the time to tie Seto on one of the wrecked chairs, placing him so that his back was free.

Over the years, the blue eyed had memorised one of the most important rules; Never struggle against anything said and/or done.

"You will work to pay for the damage, do you understand?! Your bedtime will be reduced to four hours, and your daily break will be fourty minutes long. Understand?!"

"Yes,Sir."

No arguing or pleading for mercy. That man, having no heart at all, would classify Seto as a weak person that wasn't worth living, not even as dirt underneath his expensive Italian leather shoes.

"You will start right now while I go re-order the machines and the material. Go wash yourself, you look like a pig!"

Finally, he released his victim that was now allowed to clean his aching and sore back. The cold water he was forced to wash himself with in that 'bathroom' that was attached to the lame excuse of a 'bedroom' would also not really help to ease the stinging pain on his back.

"Seto!"

Wanting no eye contact with the maid, the boy didn't even bother to turn around and to face her before opening the door and entering the dark room.

"Wait, Seto."

The feeling of a warm hand touching his shoulder made the broken 14 years old stop dead in his tracks.

"Your back is all ripped open, again. Come on, I'll take care of you."

"You don't have to, Rachel."

"But I want to, you can't clean them all by yourself, and Gozaburo never said anything against me helping you."

With a tired sounding sigh of resignation, Seto let the only employee in the mansion that had enough courage to care, guide him to the bathroom.

The girl was only two years older than the adopted Kaiba, and had started looking out for him ever since the first official beating. It had been kind of a 'welcome home' present from Gozaburo, because his questions weren't answered fastly enough.

Unbeknownst to her boss, Rachel had started to become friends with little Mokuba, and tried gaining the older brother's trust. Of course there had been protest at first.

"You should be thankful, brat." Was all that Gozaburo said as he caught Rachel fixing the boy's wounds. The heavy storm both under-aged were afraid of never came, fortunately.

"Can I ask you a question?"

The dark green haired and brown eyed girl looked up, and gave Seto a sincere and warm smile.

"Of course."

"Why are you working here? I mean you're barely older than me."

"I got kicked out from home."

"Why?"

"Because I wanted my parents to meet my girlfriend. I was hoping those conservative and stuffy morons would at least respect the fact that I'm their daughter...I was wrong."

Rachel's following, disappointed sigh was more than understandable.

"I was just about to give up and look out for an orphanage that would take me in, as I saw that flyer with a job offer."

"And Gozaburo said nothing about your green hair?"

The small grin made Rachel laugh slighly. In fact, she never liked keeping the same hair color for longer than two or three months. Though Seto had to admit that the dark green tone she had now was way better than that horrible, eye-cancer-causing, bright orange she still had only a few days ago.

"He didn't give me this job out of the kindness of his heart. I knew it was either the orphanage, or the conditions he placed. You know, I made the mistake to tell him why I got kicked out, and well, he mentioned some special services I had to furfill.

Seto's eyes widened slightly. There was never any kind of denying; the man was a senile old pig, but it was another thing to hear it out of a victim's mouth.

"Oh, nono, don't worry. I'm lucky I never had to do that with him. He always orders the most expensive prostitutes, and well, the additional turn on is some live lesbian show. Anyway, it's less humiliating than to actually have to sleep with him if you ask me."

Seto nodded.

"You're right, sorry 'bout being aggressive towards you."

The harsh training should form the boy to a cold and cruel bastard. It was hard not to give in, and to resist being the giant asshole he was supposed to be.

"No problem, really."

* * *

"You insolent bastard!" This program isn't worth anything! I told you to especially invest attention to the movement!"

"I wasn't done yet, Sir-"

"Shut up!"

A fist connecting with Seto's left cheek was used to fortify the order. After a short flight from roughly one and a half meter, the victim hit the floor. Knowing his abusive step-father for quite some time, the bleeding boy instantly stood up, being careful not to smear the blood that came out of his mouth everywhere. He hated the disgusting, metallic taste of blood.

"How long will you need?"

"One hour, Sir."

"You have half an hour."

With a single nod, Seto turned around to walk away. After that, his vision suddenly started to blur until darkness finally took over and he heard his name being called over and over again.

"...to...Seto, wake up!"

Mokuba had been outside, starting the fire with Jou and Yugi as he noticed the absence of his older brother, who never made a step out of the trailer ever since everyone got out ten minutes ago. Seto was sleeping on the same spot he had been sitting on before, with his head buried in his arms that were crossed on the table. Mokuba could tell, by the fast breathing and the eventual jerking, that a nightmare was making it difficult for his brother to rest properly.

Suddenly, a pair of blue eyes shot open, giving Mokuba an expressionless look.

"Big brother, are you alright?"

Still a bit puzzled, and angry at himself for dozing off, the taller one nodded and leaned back while rubbing his eyes with the right hand.

Dinner's almost ready, if you want to come."

"Thanks, Mokuba."

_'Great, I won't be able to sleep anymore during that night. Mh, fuck it, those nightmares are driving me crazy anyway.'_

"Oh my God, Jonouchi! Would you please stop eating like a pig?!"

Mai suddenly burst out after several minutes of wasted patience. How could the others not feel offended by the disgusting noises?Sheknew they hung out together all the time, but was that the reason they managed to ignore it? Or could they shut off their hearing senses?

"Hey, don't complain! Guys eat like that."

"Yea? Well, Kaiba for an example doesn't!"

Hearing his name being called, Seto snapped out of his nightmare-analyzing thoughts, and looked up, only to see everyone looking at him.

"Huh?"

"At least you don't eat like a pig, or like Jou."

While more or less all of them started chuckling, Seto still kept his puzzled expression.

"Why should I?"

Wow, had he really been that absent? What on earth had they been talking about?

"Jou said that it's normal for guys to eat like pigs."

Michelle, who was sitting right next to Seto, told him what the whole discussion had been about.

"That's a lame excuse, you know?"

Seto lifted an eyebrow while continuing to lazily poke the food in the plastic plate he was holding in his left hand.

"Are you planning to eat that?"

Sensing the question was directed towards him, Seto looked at Jou who gave him an apologetic smile. It grew even wider as the not very hungry man stood up, made two steps to hand the blonde the plate. After that, he leaned back on the plastic chair he had been sitting for quite a while now, and even though it was compfortable, Seto was still afraid of the cheap material giving in unterneath his weight. Cheap things. He never took his richess for granted, and was, in contrary to what the general population thought, a very simple guy. Only that he knew how to invest in compfort.

Soon, the thoughts, and all available attention drifted back at the nightmare's images, and what they made him live through again.

The next interruption didn't wait for long though. The group got surprised by the ringing, and vibrating pants Seto was wearing.


	26. 26 Sex Buddies!

_**Hey there my friends!**_

_**It makes me very happy to know there's so many people out there reading this story! This is one of the chapters that should be a little more exciting, due to the introduction of my OC Rachel. I tried really hard not to make a cliché out of her, and I'm excited to know what you'll think of her and her relation to both Kaiba brothers.**_

_**Some of you may have noticed; I've changed my profile name to EmiTheInsane. It makes things a lot easier to me, I got the same name on DeviantArt.**_

_**All I have left to say is HAIL COFFEE, and THANK YOU!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-gi-oh! I'm not gaining any money by posting this! I just own the plot.**_

**Chapter 26: Sex Buddies?!**

The vibrating and sounding gadget managed to annoy it's owner at first. But soon, the feeling was replaced by great tension. He had known Rachel had been safe the whole time. The Kaiba's private island had no possibility of communication at all. After all the work with complicated, and sophisticated technology, computer programs, extremely boring meetings, and the constant fear of not being able to hit the deadline, it was nice not to be available at all and to just chill out at the beach.

At least the display told him it was her. It wouldn't surprise Seto if she was also having problems where ever she was now, after all they lived through. Even if, as far as they knew, the infection solely hit Japan, there was no guarantee that it wouldn't also hit the rest of the world.

"Rachel?"

"_Seto?! Are you and Mokuba okay?! I'm back in New York, and saw what's happening over there through the news!"_

"We're okay. It's hard to keep it that way though. How does it look like over there? Are you safe?"

"I'm at our mansion, don't worry. Though I must say it is very chaotic. The airport was a true pain to get through. I'm lucky I was travelling in our private jet, otherwise I'd be stuck at the health control station until tomorrow...Anyway, there are no infected, just like everywhere else in the world. Seems like only Japan is concerned."

"At least something positive. Listen, don't get out, okay?"

"Don't worry, I have my gun with me all the time, just in case. Even if I would want to, I ouldn't get out of here. I'm leading Kaiba Corp from here. I'm lucky they respect me as the deputy chief."

"How's it going?"

"The stocks have dropped a bit. But otherwise...It's all over the news that you're still in Japan, the press is making a huge scene out of it. I'm giving a press conference to tell you're still alive."

"I'm taking care of that as soon as we're there."

"Hey Rachel!"

Since Seto had put on the speakerphone, the whole group, including Mokuba, whose smile could not get bigger, could hear the woman talk. Seto's ears could not bear much more noise right now, especially not by holding a phone there, where the sound was all combined, and almost shrill.

"_Mokie! Sweetie! Are you alright? Where are you anyway? I can't track Seto's phone._"

"We're in Yokohama."

"_What?! Give me Seto, please!_"

Due to the loud female voice coming out of the phone, said one held it as far away from his right ear as the lenght of his arm allowed to.

"_Why are you in Yokohama? Why didn't you stay in the mansion?!-"_

Before she could ask any more questions, Rachel was interrupted.

"Calm down! We tried taking the heli on KC HQ first, but Marcus managed to crash the damn thing down."

"_But what about the mansion?"_

Seto's look wandered towards Jou, who was now looking down in shame, and decided not to get into details.

"Kind of an accident, I'll tell you another time. We're here because of a refuge for survivors, organized by the military. Turned out that it's totally corrupted. Guess who's the leader?"

"_Who? Dick-face?_"

"Mhm."

"_I assume you took the weapons?_"

"And the two Humvees."

"_You let Mokuba drive that huge thing?!_"

Seto groaned in pain, and held the phone farther away from his right ear once again.

"Rachel! No need to shout! We're not alone here."

"_Who's with you?_"

She sounded concerned and curious. Only wanting to protect her boys, as always.

"Don't worry, Rachel! They're my friends!"

Mokuba knew she'd react that way.

"_How many, and who?_"

"There's Yugi, his grandpa, Jou, Hanasaki, Michelle, Mai, and Anzu. We're nine."

"_Oh, the friends you used to hang out with?_"

"Exactly." Mokuba happily answered.

"_Ah, okay. Then it's alright._"

Just before Seto could continue talking, Anzu silently asked Mokuba a question all of them had on their minds ever since that weird phone call had started.

"Is that Kaiba's girlfriend?"

Not as silent as she thought. The woman on the other side of the call started laughing out loud. Almost hysterically...

"_Who asked __that__, Seto?!_"

"Mazaki, one of Mokuba's friends."

Rachel still had no idea that Seto had her on speakerphone, while it was something totally logical to him in that moment. A silent misunderstanding that would soon reveal a secret both adults kept solely for themselves. Slightly insulted, Anuz asked herself why her question had sounded that hilarious.

After calming herself down a bit, Rachel's voice switched to a playful, and seductive one.

"_What should we say, Seto? Bes friends and sex-buddies, or-_"

Seto's eyes widened, while a horribly deep blush covered his face.

"You're on speakerphone, you idiot!" He immediately shouted, to prevent any more details to find their ways towards the group's ears.

"_What? Since when?!_"

"Since we started talking! Didn't you-"

"_Why the hell was I on speakerphone?!_"

"Because my ears are hurting from all the shooting." Seto closed his eyes, and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"_Damnit! Is there a slight possibility that Mokuba didn't-_"

"His eyes look like they're gonna pop out any second, so..."

"_Sorry Mokuba...Okay, topic change! How to get you out of there? Don leads all the military operations as far as I just checked, so we can scratch the Japanese one. Maybe I'll get help from the United States?_"

"Sounds good. Do you think they'll believe you?"

"_I'll try my luck. One thing is for sure; I can't pick you up at Yokohama. Dick-face would __immediately notice any landing attempt. We should meet where they'd never expect you to be._"

"Domino."

"_Exactly._"

"Waitwaitwaitwait, we cannot go back there, it's way too dangerous!"

Sugoroku suddenly jumped up from his previous sitting position, and held his hands up in defense. As if he wanted to prevent the group from even thinking about agreeing to that absurd plan.

"Do you have a better idea?"

Once again, Seto was annoyed by the older Muto. He and Rachel were trying to find the best course of action, the right direction to take, and all the fool had to do was to be a drama queen!

"No, I do not. But everything else we'll come up with would be safer!"

"Yea, maybe we should let them get us."

Seto's direct, deep, and with sarcasm filled voice was a clear message; the discussion was over.

"I'm not planning to drive through the cities, if that's what you're afraid of. Should we?"

The rest of the group was asked for their opinions.

They knew of the danger of getting caught by their living and armed enemy, who, on top of that, swore to chase them. It was only a matter of time until they were found, especially while being in the same region.

"_Seto? Are you still there?_"

Rachel's worried voice filled the silence afer ten awfully long seconds.

"I am."

"I think it's worth it. Those zombies are only focused on the cities, where lots of people are still hiding. That's the source of the noise. We just need to be careful and as unobtrusive as possible."

Jou decided to speak what was on his mind, even though it surely wouldn't please Yugi's grandfather. What else where they supposed to do? They came with a target, and that target turned out to be a huge mistake, covered in shit. At least there would be someone waiting to get them out of that horrible hell if they made it to Domino.

Seto was glad to have Jou's support when it came to lead their small group. It could have been worse, considering their once great hatred towards each other...

"_So, are we meeting at the port?"_

"Mhm."

"_Good, now I know how to proceed. You should make a huge detour to be sure not to meet Don and his men. Make some breaks for two, three, or even more days, and hide the cars, or anything that could reveal your whereabouts. The military isn't the only danger source. Lots of criminals are using the situation to their advantage to live like they always wanted to. __Mokuba and Seto are a perfect target. Until then, we'll need to cut the contact, but I'll give you call when I'm there._"

Seto nodded while thinking about what would be needed until their next destination.

"We'll start right in the morning."

"_Good, good. Be careful, things are pretty ugly over there. Do you still have enough ammo?_"

"That's the only thing I'm not worried about."

"_Okay, so I'll see you all in a few days?_"

"Sure. Take care."

"_I should say that to you...And Mokuba?_"

"Yes?"

"_Sorry..._"

"It's okay, really. See ya then."

The boy didn't look or sound like he did a few seconds ago. All but that. He looked like he was deep in thoughts, and trying to remember some questions that probably never had been answered properly.

Seto didn't even dare to look up as Rachel hung up, but waited for the first comment.

"Sex-buddies, eh?"  
Of course, Jou had to be the first to speak. Seto remained quiet and shrugged, trying not to give in to the temptation and rub it in the blonde's face.

"I guess." Not showing the will to explain himself any further, Seto opened another can of soda one handed. God, he loved that stuff.

"Seto...Did you really do that with her?"

The boy had a disgusted look on his face while his brother tried to mentally prepare himself and thought of some acceptable answers.

"..."

"Oh! Now I know what you two were doing in the conference room a few months ago!"

_'Oh great, and he's sugar high.'_ The older Kaiba saw the chocolate bar both kids were sharing with each other

The rest of the group, with a single exception called Sugoroku, started laughing at Mokuba's outburst. The boy with the curious nature had now a huge source for all kind of answers belonging to the mysteries he still hadn't figured out how to solve. Not even TV was that entertaining.

While Seto took a small sip from the cool lemon liquid and placed it on his right cheek afterwards to cool himself down a bit, he patiently listened to what the little whirlwind had to say.

"And the other night, you know when my bathroom was being remodeled and I needed to use yours, remember? So I wasn't hallucinating, I really did hear her voice!"

**Flashback**

_A hot shower was exactly what the CEO had needed after a long, and tiring day at work. It was two in the morning. Rather early for him to be at home, but the cold winter was one of the weaknesses he had. That one managed to force him to stop working, and to seek the warm comfort of his king sized bed._

_"Seto, are you in there?"_

_The special tone in the woman's voice that just finished entering the room was all he needed to know in what mood she was. Now she only needed to know if the lust was reciprocated._

_"Wanna join?" The door to the shower enclosure opened in front of the woman, revealing a very uncensored Kaiba Seto. As if the wet, and toned body wasn't enough to drive her crazy, the blue-eyed man's throbbing lenght gave her the final hint that her presence was very welcomed._

_It didn't take long until he ended up slamming her insides hard from behind, making her moan for more._

_Their little game would have continued like that, if there hadn't been the interrupting, desperated Mokuba._

_"Seto! Can I come in? I need to-"_

_Exactly in the same moment, the unsuspecting young boy's older brother had decided to thrust even harder, causing Rachel to cry out in pleasure. They weren't deaf, and the boy would have to get in, and there was no way they would let Mokuba catch them in the shower together. He was way too young for a first heart-attack, so, Seto instantly stopped his hip's movements, and placed his right hand over her mouth._

_"Seto, is Rachel in there?"_

_Mokuba asked while emptying his bladder._

_"No, you're probably imagining things. You're tired, Mokuba."_

_"You're right. G'night, bro."_

_The young Kaiba just finished drying his hands with one of the small towels as his brother answered._

_"Good night, Mokuba."_

_Finally, the sound of a closing door reached their ears, but only as the door to the bedroom closed, both finally dared to breathe deeply in excitement._

_"That...Was close..."_

_Seto whispered into Rachel's ear before nibbling on her earlobe and slowly resuming his movements._

_"Hm, I'm close too, you know..." She seductively answered before playfully taking his middle-finger into her mouth. The adrenaline still had both best friends in it's claws, so stopping was no option._

**End Flashback**

It only needed the bare thought of the immense kick to make Seto get hard. In the wrongest of the wrong moments...So, in order to hide that growing detail in his crotch, he simply leaned forward and placed his elbows on his knees.

"Does that mean she's your girlfriend?"

The older Kaiba noticed the worry in Mokuba's voice. The three had started passing lots of time together after Gozaburo finally disappeared from their lives, and they never seemed to be in love. Rachel went for women, after all.

"No, she's not."

"Still...eeww."

This time, Seto could not hold back a small chuckle. Though he still, very successfully, ignored the stunned looks from the rest of the group.

He was a human being, after all. They probably thought he'd hire a prostitute for such special needs. Hah, he'd rather become asexual before starting to act as low as Gozaburo. What he and Rachel had started a while ago had been pure coincidence. Out of curiosity.

"Seto?"

A small hand tugged at his sleeve. Michelle caught the general attention.

"Michelle?" _'Oh please don't...'_

"What's a 'sex-buddy'?"

_'...ask.'_


End file.
